title: Multiple malaria infection in a pregnant woman from Nigeria: detection by multiplex PCR.
abstract: For the last 100 years, diagnosis of malaria has been based on examination of Giemsa-stained thick and thin blood films under the microscope. This is a time-consuming procedure which often fails to correctly diagnose the infecting species--especially when carried out by inexperienced technicians or when blood levels of parasite are low. Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) for antigen detection can distinguish between Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax but cannot identify the species present in mixed infections. In the case reported here we used multiplex PCR to investigate suspected mixed infection in a pregnant woman from Nigeria. The results suggest that the method used is highly specific and can be very sensitive and that it has several advantages with respect to microscopy and RTDs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. liagrafit@yahoo.it
authors.forename: Rosalia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Graffeo
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Masucci
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bugli
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Damiano
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pinnetti
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Federico
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fadda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology*; D009549:Nigeria; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011247:Pregnancy; D015597:Pregnancy Complications, Parasitic / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan