Open AccessRecognition of Cryptosporidium oocysts in fresh and old stool samples: comparison of four techniques
Author(s) -
Salman Ghaffari,
Narges Kalantari
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine/asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.507
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 2588-9222
pISSN - 2221-1691
DOI - 10.12980/apjtb.4.2014apjtb-2014-0067
Subject(s) - cryptosporidium , diarrhea , microbiology and biotechnology , parasite hosting , biology , 18s ribosomal rna , ziehl–neelsen stain , feces , veterinary medicine , ribosomal rna , medicine , acid fast , gene , gastroenterology , pathology , tuberculosis , biochemistry , sputum , world wide web , computer science
ObjectiveTo perform a comparative diagnosis of Cryptosporidium infection in fresh and old stool specimens.MethodsA total of 518 stool samples including 464 diarrheic human samples, 53 samples from calves with or without diarrhea and one sample from a sheep were screened. Initially, the auramine phenol, modified Ziehl-Neelsen and ELISA techniques, were preformed. Subsequently, PCR of the 18S rRNA gene of Cryptosporidium was carried out on all positive samples obtained by microscopy and ELISA.ResultsAuramine phenol and Ziehl-Neelsen identified Cryptosporidium oocysts in 49 (9.5%) and 56 (10.8%) out of 518 samples, respectively. Cryptosporidium specific antigen was found in 97/518 (18.7%) of the samples by the ELISA test. The 18S rRNA gene of the parasite was amplified in 79 out of 119 (66.4%) samples by PCR. Comparison of the detection rates between the diagnostic methods, i.e. PCR and ELISA, showed that there was a moderate level of agreement between these tests (Kappa=0.55).ConclusionsThe current study suggested that PCR or ELISA methods with one of microscopy technique should be used for screening of Cryptosporidium infection in a stool sample collection