Comparative Evaluation of Commercial Concentration Procedures for Human Intestinal Parasite Detection.

BACKGROUND

Effective stool concentration is essential in microscopically based diagnosis of human intestinal parasite infections.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the performances of 4 concentration commercial kits and 1 homemade procedure in 96 clinical stool specimens that tested positive for the detection of 9 helminth and 8 protozoa parasites.

METHODS

The presence or absence of parasite forms was microscopically determined under conditions of standard practice. Also, we established the accuracies, concentration factors, and extraction yields.

RESULTS

No difference was observed between procedures for preconcentration specimens that tested positive. However, for preconcentration specimens that tested negative, we discovered that the homemade procedure was the most effective, and 2 of the 4 commercial kits were discovered to be satisfactory for routine applications.

CONCLUSIONS

For all parasites, procedures with biphasic solvents exhibited higher performances than organic solvent-free procedures. For the first time, the effectiveness of commercial concentration kits has been evaluated on several common stool parasites, and the results suggest that improvement of commercial procedures is possible.