Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>For more than a decade, flow cytometry-based automated haematology analysers have been studied for malaria diagnosis. Although current haematology analysers are not specifically designed to detect malaria-related abnormalities, most studies have found sensitiviti...

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Main Authors: Grobusch Martin P, Hänscheid Thomas, Campuzano-Zuluaga Germán
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2010-11-01
Series:Malaria Journal
Online Access:http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/346
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author Grobusch Martin P
Hänscheid Thomas
Campuzano-Zuluaga Germán
author_facet Grobusch Martin P
Hänscheid Thomas
Campuzano-Zuluaga Germán
author_sort Grobusch Martin P
collection DOAJ
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>For more than a decade, flow cytometry-based automated haematology analysers have been studied for malaria diagnosis. Although current haematology analysers are not specifically designed to detect malaria-related abnormalities, most studies have found sensitivities that comply with WHO malaria-diagnostic guidelines, i.e. ≥ 95% in samples with > 100 parasites/μl. Establishing a correct and early malaria diagnosis is a prerequisite for an adequate treatment and to minimizing adverse outcomes. Expert light microscopy remains the 'gold standard' for malaria diagnosis in most clinical settings. However, it requires an explicit request from clinicians and has variable accuracy. Malaria diagnosis with flow cytometry-based haematology analysers could become an important adjuvant diagnostic tool in the routine laboratory work-up of febrile patients in or returning from malaria-endemic regions. Haematology analysers so far studied for malaria diagnosis are the Cell-Dyn<sup>®</sup>, Coulter<sup>® </sup>GEN<b>·</b>S and LH 750, and the Sysmex XE-2100<sup>® </sup>analysers. For Cell-Dyn analysers, abnormal depolarization events mainly in the lobularity/granularity and other scatter-plots, and various reticulocyte abnormalities have shown overall sensitivities and specificities of 49% to 97% and 61% to 100%, respectively. For the Coulter analysers, a 'malaria factor' using the monocyte and lymphocyte size standard deviations obtained by impedance detection has shown overall sensitivities and specificities of 82% to 98% and 72% to 94%, respectively. For the XE-2100, abnormal patterns in the DIFF, WBC/BASO, and RET-EXT scatter-plots, and pseudoeosinophilia and other abnormal haematological variables have been described, and multivariate diagnostic models have been designed with overall sensitivities and specificities of 86% to 97% and 81% to 98%, respectively. The accuracy for malaria diagnosis may vary according to species, parasite load, immunity and clinical context where the method is applied. Future developments in new haematology analysers such as considerably simplified, robust and inexpensive devices for malaria detection fitted with an automatically generated alert could improve the detection capacity of these instruments and potentially expand their clinical utility in malaria diagnosis.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-227862b836a24383907e1fbfc24663542022-12-22T01:20:09ZengBMCMalaria Journal1475-28752010-11-019134610.1186/1475-2875-9-346Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malariaGrobusch Martin PHänscheid ThomasCampuzano-Zuluaga Germán<p>Abstract</p> <p>For more than a decade, flow cytometry-based automated haematology analysers have been studied for malaria diagnosis. Although current haematology analysers are not specifically designed to detect malaria-related abnormalities, most studies have found sensitivities that comply with WHO malaria-diagnostic guidelines, i.e. ≥ 95% in samples with > 100 parasites/μl. Establishing a correct and early malaria diagnosis is a prerequisite for an adequate treatment and to minimizing adverse outcomes. Expert light microscopy remains the 'gold standard' for malaria diagnosis in most clinical settings. However, it requires an explicit request from clinicians and has variable accuracy. Malaria diagnosis with flow cytometry-based haematology analysers could become an important adjuvant diagnostic tool in the routine laboratory work-up of febrile patients in or returning from malaria-endemic regions. Haematology analysers so far studied for malaria diagnosis are the Cell-Dyn<sup>®</sup>, Coulter<sup>® </sup>GEN<b>·</b>S and LH 750, and the Sysmex XE-2100<sup>® </sup>analysers. For Cell-Dyn analysers, abnormal depolarization events mainly in the lobularity/granularity and other scatter-plots, and various reticulocyte abnormalities have shown overall sensitivities and specificities of 49% to 97% and 61% to 100%, respectively. For the Coulter analysers, a 'malaria factor' using the monocyte and lymphocyte size standard deviations obtained by impedance detection has shown overall sensitivities and specificities of 82% to 98% and 72% to 94%, respectively. For the XE-2100, abnormal patterns in the DIFF, WBC/BASO, and RET-EXT scatter-plots, and pseudoeosinophilia and other abnormal haematological variables have been described, and multivariate diagnostic models have been designed with overall sensitivities and specificities of 86% to 97% and 81% to 98%, respectively. The accuracy for malaria diagnosis may vary according to species, parasite load, immunity and clinical context where the method is applied. Future developments in new haematology analysers such as considerably simplified, robust and inexpensive devices for malaria detection fitted with an automatically generated alert could improve the detection capacity of these instruments and potentially expand their clinical utility in malaria diagnosis.</p>http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/346
spellingShingle Grobusch Martin P
Hänscheid Thomas
Campuzano-Zuluaga Germán
Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
Malaria Journal
title Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
title_full Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
title_fullStr Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
title_full_unstemmed Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
title_short Automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
title_sort automated haematology analysis to diagnose malaria
url http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/346
work_keys_str_mv AT grobuschmartinp automatedhaematologyanalysistodiagnosemalaria
AT hanscheidthomas automatedhaematologyanalysistodiagnosemalaria
AT campuzanozuluagagerman automatedhaematologyanalysistodiagnosemalaria