STUDY OF USEFULNESS OF CENTRIFUGED BUFFY COAT SMEAR IN COMPARISION WITH PERIPHERAL BLOOD SMEAR IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF MALARIA
Dr. Hamsini C.* and Dr. P. Karkuzhali
ABSTRACT
Introduction and Background: Malaria continues to be a global public health challenge with more than 200 million cases and over 6,60,000 deaths annually, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical countries. The laboratory diagnosis of malaria is made by different techniques such as the conventional thin and thick peripheral blood smears (PBS), concentration techniques such as buffy coat smears and fluorescent (QBC) technique, Serologic tests such as the detection of parasite-specific proteins (Dipstick) and PCR. Aim: The present study was undertaken to assess the usefulness of a centrifuged buffy coat smear (CBCS) technique for diagnosis of malaria and to compare it with conventional PBS examination. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 100 malaria suspected patients who came to the department of pathology, SBMCH, Chennai, were subjected to these tests, that is PBS and CBCS. Results: The highest number of cases were detected by the CBCS method (25%) followed by the PBS (18%). It was observed that while both PBS and CBCS had excellent specificity, PBS had low sensitivity (72.8%) in detecting the malaria parasites as compared with CBC (90.9%). Conclusion: It was concluded that CBCS is an easy, rapid and accurate technique and could be adopted for reliable diagnosis of malaria, and especially useful in centres, where facility of QBC not available.
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