Evaluation of feconomics and mini-flotac as recent stool preparation techniques for diagnosis of intestinal parasites

Abstract EN

Till now there is no gold standard method for diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections.

The present work evaluated the performance of recently developed methods; mini-FLOTAC and Feconomics and to compare them with the old traditional methods.

A total of 136 stool samples (collected from diarrheic patients) were analyzed by the newly developed techniques; Feconomics and mini-FLOTAC with three flotation solutions (FS2, FS6 and FS7) and traditional methods; direct smear and formol ether concentration method (FECM).

The total number of positive samples detected by any of the methods was taken as diagnostic “gold” standard for each parasite species (combined results).

Sensitivity, negative predictive value and kappa index of agreement were calculated for each method compared to combined results in detection of all parasites.

Overall, 93.4 % of the cases were found to be infected with parasites.

The most prevalent parasite detected was Cryptosporidium (25.7 %) while the least detected parasitic infection was Trichostrongylus colubriformis (8.1%).

The most sensitive method for protozoa detection was Feconomics followed by FECM and mini-FLOTAC FS7 (97 %, 55 % and 47 % respectively).

Also, Feconomics method was the most sensitive for detection of helminths followed by mini-FLOTAC FS7 and mini-FLOTAC FS2 (94 %, 79 % and 72 %).

Feconomics showed good agreement in detection of all parasites while it showed perfect agreement for individual parasite with superiority to all other methods.

Mini-FLOTAC showed better performance in detection of helminths compared to protozoa.

Feconomics method is a promising technique for detection of all intestinal parasites.

It is simple, highly sensitive, time saving and does not require centrifugation.

More studies are still needed to clarify the effectiveness of both methods.