Laboratory utility of coproscopy, copro immunoassays and copro nPCR assay targeting Hsp90 gene for detection of Cryptosporidium in children, Cairo, Egypt.
Cryptosporidium is a significant cause of diarrhea worldwide especially in children. Infection may end fatally in immunocompromised patients. Multi-attribute analysis was used to determine the lab utility of 4 diagnostics; coproscopy of AF stained fecal smear, fecal immunoassays by ICT and ELISA and copro-nPCR assay targeting Hsp90 gene, for detection of Cryptosporidium in stool of 250 Egyptian children (150 diarrheic and 100 non-diarrhaeic children). Also, to determine Cryptosporidium molecular prevalence. Cryptosporidium was an important enteric pathogen among both diarrheic and non-diarrheic study children with a clearly high prevalence of 16.4 % (n = 41). Conventional methods had perfect specificity (100 %) but couldn`t be used as a consistent single detection method due to their lowered sensitivities. Multi-attribute analysis ranked nPCR the highest test for lab use. Being the test with the best diagnostic yield, nPCR is a reliable diagnostic test and is going to replace conventional methods for reliable detection of Cryptosporidium.
Medical Parasitology, Kasr Al-Ainy School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Marwa M I
MM
Ghallab
Medical Parasitology, Kasr Al-Ainy School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Inas Z Abdel
IZ
Aziz
Medical Parasitology, Kasr Al-Ainy School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Eman Y
EY
Shoeib
Medical Parasitology, Kasr Al-Ainy School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Ayman A
AA
El-Badry
AF stain; Copro-DNA; Cryptosporidium; ELISA; Fecal immunoassay; Hsp90; ICT; Multi-attribute; Nested PCR