title: Simplified molecular detection of Leishmania parasites in various clinical samples from patients with leishmaniasis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Molecular methods to detect Leishmania parasites are considered specific and sensitive, but often not applied in endemic areas of developing countries due to technical complexity. In the present study isothermal, nucleic acid sequence based amplification (NASBA) was coupled to oligochromatography (OC) to develop a simplified detection method for the diagnosis of leishmaniasis. NASBA-OC, detecting Leishmania RNA, was evaluated using clinical samples from visceral leishmaniasis patients from East Africa (n = 30) and cutaneous leishmaniasis from South America (n = 70) and appropriate control samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Analytical sensitivity was 10 parasites/ml of spiked blood, and 1 parasite/ml of culture. Diagnostic sensitivity of NASBA-OC was 93.3% (95% CI: 76.5%-98.8%) and specificity was 100% (95% CI: 91.1%-100%) on blood samples, while sensitivity and specificity on skin biopsy samples was 98.6% (95% CI: 91.2%-99.9%) and 100% (95% CI: 46.3%-100%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The NASBA-OC format brings implementation of molecular diagnosis of leishmaniasis in resource poor countries one step closer.
authors.affiliation: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT)/Royal Tropical Institute, KIT Biomedical Research, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. h.schallig@kit.nl.
authors.forename: Claire M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Mugasa
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.forename: Gerard J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Schoone
authors.forename: Frank L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Basiye
authors.forename: Alfarazdeg A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Saad
authors.forename: Sayda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: El Safi
authors.forename: Piet A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Kager
authors.forename: Henk Dfh
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Schallig