Intestinal Parasite Infections and Accuracy of Direct Thin and Thick Smear, Formol-Ether Sedimentation, Centrifugal Flotation, and Mini-FLOTAC Techniques Among Patients with Gastrointestinal Tract Disorders from the Greater Cairo Region, Egypt

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency of intestinal parasitic infection among patients with gastrointestinal tract disorders from the Greater Cairo region, Egypt. In addition, a comparison was made of the accuracy of direct thin and thick smear, formol-ether sedimentation (FEC), centrifugal flotation (CF), and mini-FLOTAC techniques in the diagnosis of infection. Out of 100 patients, the overall prevalence of parasitic infection was 51%. Only 6% had dual infection. Giardia lamblia was the most common parasite (26%), followed by Hymenolepis nana (20%), Entamoeba coli (8%), and Enterobius vermicularis (3%). Except the statistically significant association between E. vermicularis infection and perianal itching and insomnia (P < 0.001), age, gender, and complaints of the examined individuals had no association with prevalence of parasitic infection. Both FEC and CF were equally the most accurate techniques (accuracy = 98.2%, confidence interval [CI] = 0.95-1.0, and κ index = 0.962), whereas the Kato-Katz method was the least accurate (accuracy = 67.5%, CI = 0.57-0.78, and κ index = 0.333). However, mini-FLOTAC-ZnSO 4 was the most accurate for diagnosis of helminthic infection, and FEC was more accurate for diagnosis of protozoal infection (accuracy = 100%, CI = 1.0-1.0, and κ index = 1).

Evaluation of mini-FLOTAC method for diagnosing intestinal parasitic infections

“…In agreement the study done by Barda et al [7] confirmed that the mini-FLOTAC sensitivity for helminthes was 95% and FECM sensitivity for protozoa was 88%. Also, our results are close to the study done by Hussein et al [3] in which mini-FLOTAC sensitivity for helminthes was 100% and FECM sensitivity for protozoa was100%. An important observation is that the diagnostic accuracy of the mini-FLOTAC changes according to the FS used.…”

“…This agrees with several studies [20,22,30] which detected higher sensitivity of FS2 in helminthes detection. Hussein et al [3] revealed that FS7 was generally more sensitive (100%) for helminthes diagnosis but with no significant difference between FS2 and FS7. This disagreed completely with the findings of our study in which FS7 was less sensitive (58.3%) in helminthes diagnosis with a significant difference between FS2 and FS7.…”

“…Growing awareness of the clinical importance and public health relevance of IPIs [1,2] induced the need for sensitive inexpensive and simply applied diagnostic tools [3] . A wide variety of laboratory methods including direct wet mount, concentration, molecular and culture approaches have been developed for the diagnosis of IPs [4] .…”

The Incidence Of Intestinal Parasites Among Children In Hivi Pediatric Hospital, Duhok, Iraq

“…It is noteworthy to mention that all helminthes found were Enterobius vermicularis nematodes. Could be due to the methods of diagnosis used in this study, this variation is not significant at all and may reflected that direct smear methods are less sensitive and required triplicate successive examination which is not applied here and that referred previously by others [32]. .…”

Evaluation of the effect of radioactive cobalt-60 and ultraviolet rays on Giardia lamblia infectivity to mice

“…In studies to assess the frequency of intestinal parasitic infection in Egypt, Giardia lamblia was recorded in 34.3% of stool samples by IFAT in a report from Menoufia governorate [1] ; and 37% of water samples from different districts in Alexandria city also by flow cytometry [2] . A more recent report from greater Cairo recorded 26% infectivity [3] .…”