Differential Diagnosis of Malaria by Centrifuged Buffy Coat Smear

Malaria continues to be a global public health challenge especially in the tropical and sub-tropical countries.It is one of the most important infectious diseases in the world and its history extends into antiquity. Control and eradication of malaria have become very challenging issues and requires prompt treatment to save the patient's life, which in turn requires a rapid and accurate diagnosis. Several approaches have been developed in recent times to enable early and reliable diagnosis of malaria. Each of the techniques have their own advantages and disadvantages. This book ultimately concluded the performance of a modified technique for diagnosis of malaria by incorporating a centrifugation-enhanced step into the conventional method of smear preparation and examination for malaria which gives positive result even in the case of low parasitemia as compared with conventional peripheral blood smear examination which gives false negative result in low parasitemia. This helps to concentrate the parasites, which are then easily visualized by microscopy. The CBCS technique fulfills most of these criteria and may be adopted for rapid and reliable diagnosis of malaria .