Methylene blue staining of gastric tissue for the identification of Helicobacter pylori.

This study compared Giemsa (GM) and methylene blue (MB) stains for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori. Gastric biopsy specimens obtained from January 2001 to December 2005 were reviewed. They were all stained with hematoxylin and eosin, GM and MB stains. The slides were examined on a blinded basis. Direct comparisons were made between the both stains. Two hundred thirty-six cases were studied with a concordance rate of 98.3% (Kappa value = 0.951, p < 0.05), showing good agreement. MB stain can be substituted for GM stain, and is preferred because it is cost-effective, less time-consuming, less complicated to perform, accurate and widely available. Useful hints to reduce false negativity with MB stain are discussed.

The use of flow cytometry as a diagnostic test for malaria parasites.

A total of 453 clinical blood samples were determined for malaria parasites by flow cytometric assay (FCM) and reagents from Sysmex Corporation, Japan. In this study, the FCM greatly simplified and accelerated parasite detection, with sensitivity of 91.26%, specificity 86.28% and accuracy 87.42%. Overall, the parasite counts by flow cytometric measurement correlated well with the parasitemia measured by microscopic assay (regression coefficient = 0.9409). The detection limit was 0.05-0.1% parasitemia. No evidence of malaria parasites in either blood donor volunteers or other disease patients groups was determined by FCM. However, 48 samples who had been treated with antimalarial drugs and whose parasite microscopic counts were negative, showed false-positive results. When the data of these 48 samples were analyzed, they were found to have high levels of reticulocytes, ranging from 2.0-18.9%. This finding suggested that a high reticulocyte concentration in the blood may interfere with the performance of the FCM. Further improvement, by eliminating this interference, will make the FCM one of the most promising tests for malaria diagnosis.

Rapid diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric imprint smears.

The objective of this study was to determine the sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV) of Diff-Quik-stained gastric imprint cytology smears in the detection of H. pylori compared with histology. Air-dried imprint smears of gastric biopsies from 150 patients were stained by the Diff-Quik method in the endoscopy suite and examined for H. pylori, providing results within minutes. The presence of inflammation and intestinal metaplasia were documented. The same biopsy was processed and stained with H&E and Warthin-Starry stains, and reviewed by a different pathologist blind to the imprint cytology results. Ninety-four of the 150 patients were male with a mean age of 50 years. Based on histology, the H. pylori prevalence was very low at 8%. The sensitivity and specificity of imprint cytology in the detection of H. pylori were 83.3% and 100%, respectively. The PPV and NPV were 100% and 98.6%, respectively. There were two false negatives and no false positives. A combination of imprint cytology and histology achieved 100% sensitivity. Imprint smears did not provide added value over histology with regards to inflammation and metaplasia. Gastric imprint smears stained with Diff-Quik method is a rapid, cheap, and reliable method for the detection of H. pylori and have their best results when complemented with histology.

Evaluation of the direct acridine orange staining method and Q.B.C. test for diagnosis of malaria in Delhi, India.

Conventional Giemsa stained peripheral blood smear examination for demonstration of malarial parasites remains the gold standard for diagnosis of malaria in developing endemic countries. However this technique is time consuming, requires training and may give poor results in cases with low parasitaemia. To overcome these problems and improve diagnostic accuracy two newer tests have been studied and compared with standard Giemsa staining. These are the wet mount fluorescence microscopy of Acridine Orange stained thin blood films (A.O.) and the Quantitative Buffy Coat technique (Q.B.C) for diagnosis of malaria. A.O. staining was found to be 97.5% sensitive and 100% specific for detection of all stages and species of malarial parasite. The Q.B.C assay was found to be 100% sensitive and 97.5% specific for diagnosis of malaria. A.O. staining was very fast and the species identification was easy once the staining was optimised. The Q.B.C. test required considerable amount of practice, costly equipment, however it was fast and in our study was found to be highly sensitive.

Evaluation of quantitative buffy coat (QBC) assay and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for diagnosis of malaria.

A prospective study was undertaken to compare the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Quantitative Buffy Coat (QBC) assay with conventional Giemsa technique for diagnosis of malaria. A total of 104 samples were taken for the purpose. They comprised of fever cases suggestive of malaria (n=74) and control group, fever cases other than malaria (n=30). Peripheral blood smears were prepared by Giemsa staining and QBC assay was performed as per standard protocol. From the stored blood samples, parasite DNA was extracted and PCR was performed using P. falciparum and P. vivax specific sets of primers. The QBC assay was 100% in agreement with the Giemsa stain. Specificity of the PCR detection of P. falciparum parasites was 100%. However, sensitivity for detection of P. falciparum and P. vivax by PCR was 64.28% and 82.35% respectively. In mixed cases of malaria (n=2), PCR results were in 100% agreement with that of Giemsa. The lower sensitivity of PCR for P. falciparum could probably be due to inaccessibility of target DNA, presence of PCR inhibitors in samples and parasite strain variations.

Comparison of the OptiMAL rapid test with routine microscopic examination of Giemsa-Stained Thick Blood Film for diagnosis of malaria.

The OptiMAL is a rapid immunodiagnostic test developed by Flow Inc., Portland, Oreg. for diagnosis and differentiation of P. falciparum and non P. falciparum malaria infection. It has been based on detection of circulating parasite lactate dehydrogenase enzyme (pLDH), produced by live Plasmodium parasites. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of the OptiMAL test with routine microscopic examination of Giemsa-Stained Thick Blood Film (routine GS-TBF) for the diagnosis of malaria at a local malaria clinic in a hyperendemic area of Thailand by using a standard GS-TBF (standard GS-TBF) as reference. One hundred and seventy five patients attending the clinic were recruited; 50, 42 and 83 were falciparum malaria, vivax malaria and non-malaria patients, respectively. Compared with the reference, the OptiMAL test had sensitivities of 92 per cent and 97.6 per cent, whereas, the routine GS-TBF had sensitivities of 81.3 per cent and 81 per cent for the detection of P. falciparum and P. vivax, respectively. Both tests showed no false positive resulting in 100 per cent specificities. However, the OptiMAL test was able to detect only 20 per cent of infection with less than 200 parasitaemia/microlitre. It was also shown in our study that the OptiMAL test was advantageous in follow-up of the treatment outcome. No false positive occurred among 40 follow-up cases. The OptiMAL test detected malaria infection more accurately than the routine GS-TBF (p < 0.05) and was simple, easy to perform and rapid. It is an alternative tool for the diagnosis of malaria in a hyperendemic area where experienced microscopists are not available.

Detection of Plasmodia in acridine orange stained capillary tubes (the QBC system).

The sensitivity, specificity and convenience of carrying out malaria diagnosis in acridine orange stained capillary tubes using a fluorescent microscope (the QBC system) was compared to screening for Plasmodia on conventional Giemsa stained thick smears. A dilution study revealed that the QBC is able to detect Plasmodia in as low a dilution as 5 organisms per ul. The QBC system was evaluated at a district hospital in Thailand. A preliminary study of 186 patients compared the QBC system to the routine malaria screening procedure (screening up to 30 microscopic fields on a thick smear). The sensitivity of the QBC was found to be 98.9% with a specificity of 94.4%. A second combined series of 465 febrile subjects were screened by thick smear and these results were compared to the QBC. 202 were positive for malaria on both QBC and thick smear. Sensitivity in this study was found to be 99.5% (202/203) and the specificity was 94.6% (248/262). When both series were combined, there were 14 QBC malaria positives that were not detected on thick smear, and 2 QBC malaria false negatives among the 651 patients studied. The parasite densities in these cases were between 10 and 320,000 organisms/microliters. The QBC system provided only a crude estimate of the level of parasitemia. The species of Plasmodia (P. falciparum and P. vivax) were correctly identified on QBC in 78% of cases.