title: IMMUNOCHROMATOGRAPHIC TEST: A NEW DIMENSION IN DIAGNOSIS OF PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM MALARIA.
abstract: 75 patients with clinical features suggestive of malaria were studied to evaluate the efficacy of immunochromatographic test (ICT), which detects histidine rich protein-2 antigen secreted by Plasmodium falciparum (Pfhrp-2), as against direct microscopy. There were 40 cases of P falciparum malaria, 14 cases of P vivax malaria and 21 cases of non-malarial fevers. Direct microscopy could detect 27(67.5%) P falciparum cases but failed to detect 13 cases (32.5%) whereas ICT could detect 35(87.5%) P falciparum cases out of 40 but failed to detect 5(12.5%) cases. All the P vivax cases and non-malarial fever cases were negative for ICT. The sensitivity and specificity of ICT is 87.5% and 100% respectively where as the positive predictive value and the negative predictive value of the test is 100% and 87.5% respectively. It is concluded that ICT test is a good adjunct to blood smear studies in fever cases with neurological and multiorgan dysfunction and in antenatal ladies.
authors.affiliation: Senior Advisor (Pathology & Haematology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Classified Specialist (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: Classified Specialist (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chawla
authors.affiliation: Classified Specialist (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mani
authors.affiliation: Graded Specialist (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Chowdhry
authors.affiliation: Post Graduate Student (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Post Graduate Student (Pathology), INHS Asvini, Colaba, Mumbai-400 005.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
keywords: ICT; P falciparum