Use of Capillary Blood Samples Leads to Higher Parasitemia Estimates and Higher Diagnostic Sensitivity of Microscopic and Molecular Diagnostics of Malaria Than Venous Blood Samples

摘要

Malaria parasitemia is higher in capillary blood than in venous blood as determined by light microscopy and quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Diagnostic sensitivity to detect malaria parasites is higher in capillary samples than in venous samples (sensitivity, 81.5% and 73.4%, respectively).