Evaluation of the Performances of Two Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Cyscope?mini and Paracheck-Pf?) in the Diagnosis of Malaria among Febrile Children in Southwest Nigeria

摘要

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the diagnostic performances of Cyscope?mini and Paracheck-Pf? for Plasmodium falciparum relative to microscopy. Subjects and Methods: 209 children aged 6 months to 12 years presenting with symptoms suggestive of malaria were enrolled at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, within a period of 6 months. Malaria parasites were identified in capillary blood samples using Cyscope?mini (parasite DNA-based fluorescence microscope) and Paracheck-Pf? (an HRP-II-based test) with microscopy of Giemsa-stained thick blood films as reference gold standard. The overall performances were calculated using OpenEpi version 2.3 statistical package. 209 samples were performed for Cyscope?mini and light microscopy while 140 samples were done by Paracheck-Pf?. Results: The prevalence of malaria parasitaemia by light microscopy was 22.0% (46/209), while those of Cyscope?mini and Paracheck-Pf? were 85.2% (178/209) and 32.1% (45/140), respectively. Parasite density ranged from 40 to 203,883/μl. Cyscope?mini and Paracheck-Pf? had sensitivities of 91.3 and 86.21%, respectively. The respective specificities were 16.56 and 81.98% for Cyscope?mini and Paracheck-Pf? with diagnostic accuracies of 33.01 and 82.86%. The diagnostic performances of the two rapid diagnostic tests were significantly different. Conclusion: Paracheck-Pf? performed better than Cyscope?mini for diagnosis of falciparum malaria and will be a good diagnostic tool for field studies.