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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Malaria has had an enormous impact on human history, not least in times of war. The disease has been treatable by a natural remedy, quinine, since the 17th century, but the production of synthetic antimalarial agents was first achieved in Germany in the wake of the Great War of 1914-1918, in which malaria had caused immense problems. In the 1920s research workers in the Bayer laboratories of the IG Farbenindustrie consortium developed the 8-aminoquinoline plasmoquine (the forerunner of primaquine). They went on to develop the acridine dye, atebrin (mepacrine) and the 4-aminoquinolines, Resochin (developed at the end of the Second World War in America as chloroquine) and Sontochin. British attempts to match the advances achieved by the Germans were at first unproductive, partly because collaboration between academic and industrial organizations in the UK was beset by concerns over patent rights. However, with the outbreak of World War II, when supplies of antimalarials were scarce, ICI succeeded in the large-scale production of mepacrine (essential to prosecution of the war, particularly in the Far East) and also initiated a programme of collaborative research that eventually led to the discovery of proguanil (Paludrine); this, in its turn led to the diaminopyrimidine, pyrimethamine. A massive cooperative screening programme in the USA during World War II eventually bore fruit in the realization of the therapeutic potential of chloroquine, and in the later development of amodiaquine and primaquine. Some of this work also influenced the subsequent discovery of mefloquine and halofantrine at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
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PMID:Conflicts of interest: the genesis of synthetic antimalarial agents in peace and war. 862 69

Plasmodium falciparum histidine rich protein-2 (PfHRP-2) based immunochromatographic test kit (ICT Malaria Pf) for the rapid diagnosis of P. falciparum malaria was evaluated at the clinic of Malaria Research Centre (Field Station), Goa. Of the 98 febrile patients screened, 22 were ICT positive for P. falciparum. Simultaneous microscopic examination of the blood smears of these ICT positive patients showed that 20 were positive for P. falciparum alone, whereas one had mix infection of both P. vivax and P. falciparum suggesting 100% sensitivity. Only one slide negative patient who had taken 600 mg chloroquine the previous day was positive in the ICT. Out of the remaining 76 blood smears, 41 showed P. vivax infection and none cross-reacted with P. falciparum HRP-2 antigen and were ICT negative except one mix infection case in which P. vivax and P. falciparum infections occurred concomitantly suggesting species specificity of 98.7%. The positive predictive value, negative predictive value and efficacy of the ICT were 95.4, 100 and 98.9% respectively. The band intensity of the ICT positive cases significantly correlated with P. falciparum parasitaemia (p < 0.01). The usefulness and the disadvantages of this diagnostic kit have been discussed in context of prevailing malaria situation in the country.
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PMID:Clinical trials of a new immunochromatographic test for diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Goa. 912 30

A rapid immunodiagnostic test (ICT Malaria PfTest) has been developed by ICT Diagnostics (Sydney, Australia) for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum infection. The test is an antigen capture assay based on the detection of P. falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 in peripheral blood. This study was undertaken to assess the performance and usefulness of the test as a diagnostic method in highly malarious, inaccessible forested villages of Mandla district, central India. In all, 353 patients with fever were scanned by the test in parallel with thick blood film examination. The sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 84.5%, respectively. The whole test took about 5 min. The test results became negative in most cases (70%) within 7 d after initiation of curative chemotherapy. The test is simple, easy to learn and accurate, and may prove to be an important tool in the battle against falciparum malaria.
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PMID:Malaria diagnosis by field workers using an immunochromatographic test. 937 31

The development of rapid and specific diagnostic tests to identify individuals infected with malaria is of paramount importance in efforts to control the severe public health impact of this disease. This study evaluated the ability of a newly developed rapid malaria diagnostic test, OptiMAL (Flow Inc., Portland, Oreg.), to detect Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria during an outbreak in Honduras. OptiMAL is a rapid (10-min) malaria detection test which utilizes a dipstick coated with monoclonal antibodies against the intracellular metabolic enzyme parasite lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH). Differentiation of malaria parasites is based on antigenic differences between the pLDH isoforms. Since pLDH is produced only by live Plasmodium parasites, this test has the ability to differentiate live from dead organisms. Results from the OptiMAL test were compared to those obtained by reading 100 fields of traditional Giemsa-stained thick-smear blood films. Whole-blood samples were obtained from 202 patients suspected of having malaria. A total of 96 samples (48%) were positive by blood films, while 91 (45%) were positive by the OptiMAL test. The blood films indicated that 82% (79 of 96) of the patients were positive for P. vivax and 18% (17 of 96) were infected with P. falciparum. The OptiMAL test showed that 81% (74 of 91) were positive for P. vivax and 19% (17 of 91) were positive for P. falciparum. These results demonstrated that the OptiMAL test had sensitivities of 94 and 88% and specificities of 100 and 99%, respectively, when compared to traditional blood films for the detection of P. vivax and P. falciparum malaria. Blood samples not identified by OptiMAL as malaria positive normally contained parasites at concentrations of less than 100/microl of blood. Samples found to contain P. falciparum were further tested by two other commercially available rapid malaria diagnostic tests, ParaSight-F (Becton Dickinson, Cockeysville, Md.) and ICT Malaria P.f. (ICT Diagnostics, Sydney, Australia), both of which detect only P. falciparum. Only 11 of the 17 (65%) P. falciparum-positive blood samples were identified by the ICT and ParaSight-F tests. Thus, OptiMAL correctly identified P. falciparum malaria parasites in patient blood samples more often than did the other two commercially available diagnostic tests and showed an excellent correlation with traditional blood films in the identification of both P. vivax malaria and P. falciparum malaria. We conclude that the OptiMAL test is an effective tool for the rapid diagnosis of malaria.
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PMID:Evaluation of the OptiMAL test for rapid diagnosis of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum malaria. 943 47

Serum levels of HRP-2 antigens against Plasmodium falciparum in 568 venous blood samples collected at two general hospitals were evaluated using the ParaSight-F (Becton-Dickinson) alone (568/568 samples) or in combination (156/568 samples) with the new ICT-Malaria P.f. (ICT-diagnostic). Comparison with the reference method (thin and thick blood smears assessed by two experienced parasitologists) showed that both tests were highly sensitive (93% and 96% respectively) and specific (98% and 98% respectively). The positive predictive values of the two tests were equal (96%) and the negative predicative values were close (96% and 98% respectively). Although both tests provided results within 10 minutes and required no special equipment for interpretation, the ICT-Malaria P.f. test seemed simpler and easier to use than the ParaSight-F test. The ParaSight-F test alone was used to monitor serum antigen levels after treatment in 24 patients. Antigen levels remained positive for at least three days after disappearance of circulating parasites (range: 3 to 28 days). Evaluation of serum levels of HRP-2 antigens can be useful for emergency diagnosis, especially in patients with low circulating parasite levels. The ICT-Malaria P.f. test seems especially suited for in-field use.
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PMID:[Serum HRP-2 antigens and imported Plasmodium falciparum malaria: comparison of ParaSight-F and ICT malaria P.f]. 961 75

The ICT Malaria Pf test for the detection of Plasmodium falciparum infection was evaluated in the diagnosis of 305 patients with fever who were admitted to a hospital located on the Thai-Myanmar border. All patients were admitted for at least one week to exclude reinfection. The test was performed using admission blood samples collected into ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the test were 92.7%, 95.1% and 94.7% respectively, compared to standard microscopic diagnosis. The ICT Malaria Pf test is an accurate method for the diagnosis of P. falciparum infection. Its simplicity and rapidity make it particularly appropriate for use in remote areas where microscopic examination of blood films is unavailable.
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PMID:The ICT Malaria Pf: a simple, rapid dipstick test for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria at the Thai-Myanmar border. 965 92

A battery of sixty-six blood samples from Senegal was analysed by the ParaSight F test, the ICT Malaria PF and the Malaria IgG CELISA. These three assays detect the histidine rich protein 2 antigen of Plasmodium falciparum. Thick smear microscopy was used as the reference method. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive positive and negative values were respectively 89%, 100%, 100%, 88% for the ICT; 86%, 93%, 94%, 85% for the paraSight and 88%, 87%, 88%, 87% for the Malaria IgG CELISA. The three assays failed to detect two positive samples with P. ovale and P. malariae. Assays were also compared with regard to the expense of equipment and reagents and speed and ease of use. The rapid ICT and ParaSight F test can be performed with minimal training and may be specially useful in areas where P. falciparum is the predominant malaria species, in epidemic malaria regions, and where skilled microscopy is not readily available.
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PMID:Diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria using ParaSight F, ICT malaria PF and malaria IgG CELISA assays. 975 17

Rapid and accurate methods are needed for the diagnosis of imported malaria. The ParaSight-F test and the ICT Malaria Pf test are commercially available kits marketed for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Both tests are antigen-capture assays based on the detection of P. falciparum histidine-rich protein 2 in peripheral blood. Using microscopy and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method as reference standards, we performed a 'blinded' comparison of these assays for the detection of P. falciparum infection in 200 febrile travellers returning from malaria-endemic areas. As determined by PCR and microscopy, 148 travellers had malaria and, of these patients, 54.7% (81/148) were infected with P. vivax only, 31.1% (46/148) with P. falciparum only, 9.5% (14/148) with P. ovale, 0.7% (1/148) with P. malariae, and 4.1% (6/148) had mixed infections. Compared to PCR, the ParaSight-F and ICT Malaria Pf tests had initial sensitivities of 94% and 90% and specificities of 95% and 97%, respectively, for the detection of P. falciparum malaria. When discrepant samples were retested with day 0 and day 1 bloods, the sensitivities improved to 96% and 94%, respectively. The 2 remaining false negative results with the Para-Sight-F test and 2 of the 3 false negative results with the ICT Malaria Pf test occurred in samples with < 100 parasites/microL. The performance of these kits was not significantly different (P = 0.75) and both are simple, rapid, and accurate tests for the detection of P. falciparum infection in the returned traveller.
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PMID:Comparison of the ParaSight-F test and the ICT Malaria Pf test with the polymerase chain reaction for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in travellers. 976 22

The ParaSight-F dipstick test (Becton Dickinson, USA) and the ICT Malaria Pf test (ICT, Australia) both detect histidine rich protein 2 (HRP-2), a water-soluble antigen expressed by Plasmodium falciparum trophozoites. The present study compared the diagnostic performance of both tests in persons returning to Belgium from countries endemic for malaria. During a period of 18 months both tests were performed on all patients returning from the tropics with a positive malaria blood film. Patients with fever without an obvious cause were used as controls. For the ParaSight-F test, considering P. falciparum trophozoites only, sensitivity was 95% and specificity 90%. Considering trophozoites of all species of Plasmodium, sensitivity was 71% and specificity 87%. Finally, considering patients with clinical malaria, the sensitivity of the test was 72% and specificity 87%. For the ICT Malaria Pf test, sensitivity was 95% and specificity 89% for P. falciparum trophozoites only, 71% and 86% for trophozoites of all species, and 72% and 87% for clinical malaria. Both tests gave highly comparable results. However, antigen detection assays cannot replace conventional microscopy in diagnosing imported malaria. Thick blood film examination is more sensitive and more specific, it allows estimation of parasitaemia and distinction between parasite growth stages, and it covers all species. Moreover, with treated patients the use of antigen tests might lead to problems in determining the efficacy of therapy.
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PMID:Evaluation of two tests based on the detection of histidine rich protein 2 for the diagnosis of imported Plasmodium falciparum malaria. 986 98

A rapid procedure for the diagnosis of malaria infections directly from dried blood spots by PCR amplification was evaluated with samples from 52 patients. Plasmodium infections were identified with a genus-specific primer set, and species differentiation between Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax was analyzed by multiplex PCR. The PCR test with any of the three primer sets was able to detect as few as four parasites per microliter by gel electrophoresis or by nonisotopic paper hybridization chromatography. The diagnoses obtained by PCR correlated closely with those obtained by Giemsa staining except for two samples observed to have mixed P. falciparum-P. vivax infections. These were initially missed by microscopic analysis. In comparison with antigen-capture assays for P. falciparum, the PCR assays were able to detect three infections that were missed by the ParaSight-F test. The PCR test was negative for nine ParaSight-F-positive samples and one ICT Malaria Pf-positive sample, and these were confirmed to be false-positive results. The PCR thus gave no false-negative or false-positive results. Patients undergoing antimalarial therapy were also monitored by the PCR assay. Four of seven patients who were PCR positive for P. vivax at the time of discharge were later readmitted to the hospital with a recurrence of P. vivax infection. We would like to propose that PCR is a sensitive and easy method that can serve as a useful addition to microscopy for the diagnosis and the clinical monitoring of treatment of malaria.
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PMID:Detection and species determination of malaria parasites by PCR: comparison with microscopy and with ParaSight-F and ICT malaria Pf tests in a clinical environment. 1020 69


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