[A comparative study of the parasitological techniques: Kato-Katz and coprotest]

Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2005 Mar-Apr;38(2):178-80. doi: 10.1590/s0037-86822005000200010. Epub 2005 Mar 30.
[Article in Portuguese]

Abstract

Parasitological diagnosis should be appropriately conducted with high sensitivity and specificity so that intestinal parasite can be detected as the specific treatment depends on this result. A comparative study was developed to evaluate the concordance between the Kato-Katz and coprotest methods in the detection of helminthes in 332 individuals in Pedro de Toledo. A significant difference was found in the case of the Trichuris trichiura - 16.2% with the Kato-Katz method and 7.5% with the coprotest method. Therefore, the positive and negative samples of the coprotest method were compared with the number of eggs per gram of feces (epg) obtained by the Kato-Katz method. When the coprotest method was negative, 65 epg of Trichuris trichiura were found by the Kato-Katz method and when the coprotest was positive the epg according to the Kato-Katz were far higher, 199 epg, which demonstrated that the coprotest was inferior to the Kato-Katz method regarding low intensity infections.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Ancylostomatoidea / isolation & purification
  • Animals
  • Ascaris lumbricoides / isolation & purification
  • Feces / parasitology*
  • Helminthiasis / diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / diagnosis*
  • Nematoda / isolation & purification*
  • Parasite Egg Count / methods
  • Schistosoma mansoni / isolation & purification*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Trichuris / isolation & purification