Studies carried out www.selleckchem.com/products/CP-690550.html thus far indicate that the Flotac technique detects human helminth infections with a higher sensitivity than the Kato-Katz technique (20, 21, 39). Recently, a study from southern Italy��designed to assess the prevalence of parasitic infections among immigrants��showed that the Flotac technique is able to diagnose not only helminths but also intestinal protozoon infections (16); hence, further studies are warranted to compare the diagnostic accuracy of Flotac with those of currently more widely used techniques. The objective of the study presented here was to validate the Flotac-400 dual technique for the diagnosis of human intestinal protozoon infections in stool samples obtained from an area in sub-Saharan Africa where they are highly endemic.
Hence, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of the Flotac-400 dual technique and the FECT, which is broadly considered the diagnostic standard technique for the identification of intestinal protozoon species infections in humans. Stool samples were obtained from a random sample of 108 individuals from C?te d’Ivoire and were subjected to the Flotac-400 dual technique, using two different FSs, and the FECT, adhering to standard protocols. MATERIALS AND METHODS Study area and population. The study was carried out between May and September 2009 and consisted of a field and a laboratory component. In May and June 2009, stool samples were collected in L��l��bl��, a rural setting of south-central C?te d’Ivoire, located approximately 160 km north of the country’s economic capital Abidjan.
Our study was embedded in a cross-sectional epidemiologic baseline survey assessing people’s infection status with helminths and other parasites in the recently established health demographic surveillance system in Taabo (Taabo HDSS). In late 2008, a population database was created in the Taabo HDSS, which provides demographic, health, and socioeconomic data on approximately 38,000 inhabitants. In order to obtain baseline epidemiologic data in L��l��bl��, the existing Taabo HDSS database was used to draw up a computer-generated random list of 351 individuals as a representation for the whole Taabo HDSS population in the village, thus including children and female and male adults of all age groups. Ethical considerations.
The study was Cilengitide approved by the institutional research commissions of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Basel, Switzerland) and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en C?te d’Ivoire (Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire). Ethical approval was granted by the ethics committee of Basel (EKBB, reference number 316/08) and C?te d’Ivoire, and a research authorization for the first author of this paper (S. L. Becker) was provided by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in C?te d’Ivoire (authorization number: 124/MESRS/DGRSIT/YKS/sac).