Comparison of microscopy and PCR for detection of intestinal parasites in Danish patients supports an incentive for molecular screening platforms

摘要

In order to compare the diagnostic efficacy of microscopy of fecal concentrates and real-time PCR for the detection of intestinal parasites in Danish patients, a total of 889 fresh fecal samples were chosen randomly over a period of 6 months (November 2007 to May 2008) among fecal samples submitted for general parasitological examination (? = 122), persistent diarrhea (n = 362), travel-associated diarrhea (n = 386), diarrhea in institutionalized individuals (n = 9), and diarrhea in immu-nocompromised patients (n = 10) (2). From each specimen, 250 mg of feces was stored at -20degC for subsequent DNA extraction and up to 1 g of feces was submitted to Blastocystisspecific culture using Jones medium and evaluated for the presence of Blastocystis after 48 h.