Publication:

Detection of malarial parasite in urine of malaria patients: a future diagnostic approach

Background Current definitive screening for active malaria infection necessitates drawing blood. The non-invasive, cost-effective malaria tests that minimize the need for blood collection are the need of time. QDx Malaria PAN/Pf rapid malaria card test (QDx rapid malaria test) is an immunochromatographic test that detects the presence of malarial antigens (pLDH and HRP-2) in the blood sample for the diagnosis of malaria. These malarial antigens are also released in the urine. The study was conducted to determine the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the QDx Rapid Malaria test for diagnosis of malaria in blood and urine.

Methods Blood and urine specimens were obtained from 75 malaria blood smear positive cases (test samples) and 25 malarial negative cases (controls). Then urine and blood specimen of each case were evaluated for QDx rapid malaria test. Using microscopy as gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the QDx rapid malaria test for urine and blood were calculated.

Results The accuracy of QDx rapid malaria test for malarial parasite detection was 97% for blood and 38 % for urine.

Conclusions Rapid malaria test processed with urine may be a useful non-invasive and cost-effective malaria diagnostic technique in future.