A new miracidia hatching device for diagnosing schistosomiasis

• Main Authors: Arnon D Jurberg, Áureo A de Oliveira, Henrique L Lenzi, Paulo Marcos Z Coelho
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde 2008-02-01
• Series: Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
• Subjects: Schistosoma mansoni; diagnosis; feces
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762008000100019

It is still imperative to develop a parasitological technique highly sensitive for diagnosing schistosomiasis in epidemiological and individual surveys. A simple and cheap hatching device with a collecting container was manufactured and tested under experimental conditions. Twelve Kato-Katz slides were performed as golden standard for comparison. Quantitative results can be carried out by counting miracidia in a plate and parasite load can be calculated (miracidia/gram of feces). Statistically significant values were higher in the hatching test. More sensitive results, with statistical significance, were achieved using 1.5 g of feces (which corresponds to 36 Kato-Katz slides) than by using the Kato-Katz method. Advantages of this technique and its limitations are presented.