Rapid diagnostic test for assessing malaria during pregnancy evaluated.

2004 AUG 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers have evaluated a malaria rapid diagnostic test for assessing the burden of malaria during pregnancy.

"Plasmodium falciparum infection during pregnancy may cause placental malaria and subsequently low birth weight, primarily through the placental sequestration of infected red blood cells. Measuring the burden of malaria during pregnancy usually involves determining the prevalence of placental malaria infection through microscopic examination of placental blood films, a difficult and error-prone process. A number of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria have been developed, most of them immunochromatographic dipstick assays," scientists in the United States report.

"However, none have been tested for the direct determination of malaria antigen in placental blood," said Lauren M. Singer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and collaborators in the United States and Burkina Faso. "We undertook an evaluation of the Malaria Rapid Test (MAKROmed) in determining placental malaria infection. The prevalence of placental parasitemia was 22.6% by microscopy, 51.0% by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and 43.1% by RDT. When the PCR was used as the gold standard, RDTs had a ...