Bone marrow smear VS Blood smear in diagnosis of Kala-azar

摘要

Background and Objectives: Bone marrow specimen is considered as superior to the blood in the laboratory diagnosis of Kala-azar. The main objective of this study is to compare these two methods of diagnosis and determine the usefulness of the diagnostic techniques. Material and Methods : This prospective cross sectional study was conducted at Janakpur Zonal Hospital, Janakpur which was aimed to determine the usefulness of the bone marrow specimen and blood specimen in the laboratory diagnosis of Kala-azar. Bone marrow aspirate and venous blood was collected aseptically from the cases were processed simultaneously. The results of these two cultures were compared. Results: Total 60 cases of Kala-azar were included in the study of which 32 were male and 28 were female. Amastigote form of Leishmania donovani were detected in 56 (93.33%) samples with high titre of parasitemiae and 119 (18%) in the blood sample with low parasitemiae. Sensitivity and Specificity of the test was calculated of the bone marrow sample test have more sensitivity (98%) and specificity (100%) over the sensitivity (90%) and specificity (96%) of blood smear test. Conclusion: Bone marrow specimens were found to be more useful than the blood sample in the laboratory diagnosis of Kala-azar. Janaki Medical College Journal of Medical Sciences (2015) Vol. 3 (2): 38-42