Further evidence of a skewed distribution of microfilariae in capillary blood.

Reported are results for 23 Haitian patients with capillary Wuchereria bancrofti microfilaremias greater than 30 mf/20 cmm blood. In capillary blood, the number of microfilariae was 0.9 to 7.8 times greater than expected when compared with that in venous blood. When the values for venous blood and capillary blood from these high count patients were plotted, the simple linear regression y = a + bx (r2 = .36) and the exponential function y = aebx (r2 = .34) both represented the relationship. However, when values for high and low count patients were plotted, the power function y = axb (r2 = 0.82) best described the relationship between the number of microfilariae in venous and capillary blood.