Evaluation of the Kato-Katz Thick Smear and Formal Ether Sedimentation Techniques for Quantitative Diagnosis of Schistosoma mansoni Infection
- 1 December 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Vol. 57 (6) , 706-708
- https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.1997.57.706
Abstract
The present study compared the Kato-Katz thick smear and formol ether sedimentation techniques in the diagnosis of Schistosoma mansoni infections. A stool specimen was collected from 915 individuals representing a high prevalence community (63.3%) and from 471 individuals representing a relatively low prevalence village (40%). The overall sensitivity of a single Kato-Katz smear was 70.8%, and it increased with each additional slide to reach 91.7% on examining four smears. However, the sensitivity was 83.3% when using the formol ether sedimentation technique. In terms of quantitative analysis, the geometric mean egg count was 94 eggs per gram (epg) of stool by two Kato-Katz smears, and 43 epg by the sedimentation technique. This means that more than 50% of eggs were missed when using the sedimentation technique, a fact that should be taken into consideration when relating infection level with morbidity.Keywords
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