MICROSCOPIC AND MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS OF INTESTINAL MICROSPORIDIOSIS AMONG IMMUNOCOMPROMIZED CHILDREN
Mohamed S Badr1, Hala M. El-Askary2, Marwa Ahmed El-Dardiry3, Marwa Adel Hassan4, Abdallah M.A. El Ebidi5, Hesham M. Hefny6, Ahmed N.M. Salem6 and Samia El-Sahn7
1Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine,Ain Shams University
2Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University.
3Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum University
4Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.
5Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Aswan University
6Departmentof Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University
7Department of Pediatric, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University
Diagnosis of intestinal microsporidial infections is routinely performed by direct microscopy, while non-molecular species identification is achieved only through electron microscopy. This study describes the performance of SYBR green real-time qPCR assay for the simultaneous detection of such infections in comparison to a traditional semi-nested cPCR among immunosuppressed paediatric diarrheic malignant cases. Composite reference standards method was used to analyze the results of this work. Out of 100 stool samples of immunocompromised children analyzed for microsporidian spores, only 21 samples were reported to be positive, all of them were positive by qPCR in addition to being positive by either cPCR or microscopy. By comparison, 18 of them were also positive for microsporidial DNA by conventional analysis with sensitivity of 85.7%, while; microscopic examination using modified trichrome staining (MTS) reported the least sensitivity 52.38%.
December 2015