The
diagnosis of
visceral leishmaniasis (VL) generally requires the use of invasive tests for the collection of infected
tissue (aspirates of
bone marrow,
spleen,
liver or
lymph nodes). This difficulty has led to the search for safer and less painful
techniques to confirm the occurrence of the
disease in
children.
Polymerase chain reaction (
PCR) is a
method that is advantageous in that it allows the use of peripheral
blood samples for
diagnosis. This
paper reports the utilisation of
PCR on peripheral
blood samples to
diagnose VL in 45
children in Mato Grosso do Sul,
Brazil. This
technique is compared with
methods carried out using
tissue collected by invasive
procedures, including direct
microscopy,
culture and
detection of
Leishmania DNA by
PCR in
bone marrow aspirates. The results show that
PCR of peripheral
blood provides great
sensitivity (95.6 percent) that is
similar to that from the
PCR of
bone marrow aspirates (91.1 percent) and higher than that achieved with
microscopy (80 percent) or
culture (26.7 percent)
methods.
PCR of peripheral
blood proved to be a suitable tool for the
diagnosis of VL in
children because it is highly sensitive and safe, with
tissue collection being less invasive than in traditional tests.