Article Document Academic Article Information Content Entity Continuant Continuant Journal Article Entity Entity Generically Dependent Continuant 2025-05-09T04:26:28 RDF description of Multicenter study to evaluate the OptiMAL test for rapid diagnosis of malaria in U.S. hospitals - http://repository.healthpartners.com/individual/document-rn38508 Multicenter study to evaluate the OptiMAL test for rapid diagnosis of malaria in U.S. hospitals 41 Malaria, Vivax/blood/*diagnosis Patient Selection Malaria/*diagnosis Blood Specimen Collection/methods Animals United States 23766 11 Hospitals Malaria, Falciparum/blood/*diagnosis document-rn38508 Journal of Clinical Microbiology Sensitivity and Specificity Plasmodium vivax/genetics/*isolation & purification Microscopy/methods Reproducibility of Results 10.1128/jcm.41.11.5178-5182.2003 <p>More than 1,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed each year in the United States. Reported numbers, however, may be artificially low because many clinicians fail to consider the diagnosis on presentation, U.S. hospital laboratory technologists have very limited experience in detecting and identifying malaria parasites, and reporting of malaria to state health departments is sporadic in many states. In this study, a rapid malaria diagnostic test, the OptiMAL test (DiaMed; under license from Flow Inc., Portland, Oreg.) was evaluated in six U.S. hospitals and compared with results of microscopy. The OptiMAL test is a 15-min rapid immunochromatographic test that both identifies and differentiates Plasmodium falciparum from non-P. falciparum malaria parasites on the basis of the detection of parasite lactate dehydrogenase in a drop of patient blood. A total of 216 specimens from patients suspected of having malaria were tested. Results indicated that 43 samples (20%) were positive for malaria parasites by microscopy (32 P. falciparum, 11 non-P. falciparum) while 42 (19%) were positive by OptiMAL (31 P. falciparum, 11 non-P. falciparum). The sensitivity of the OptiMAL test was 98%; its specificity was 100%, with positive and negative predictive values of 100 and 99%, respectively. Participating hospital physicians and laboratory directors independently reported that the OptiMAL rapid malaria test was accurate, easy to use, and well accepted by those working in their diagnostic laboratories. The overall conclusion was that integration of the OptiMAL rapid malaria test into the U.S. health care infrastructure would provide an important and easy-to-use tool for the timely diagnosis of malaria.<p> 41152 2025-02-14T21:34:35.132-06:00 public Humans Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods Plasmodium falciparum/genetics/*isolation & purification