A Comparative Study of Standard Peripheral Blood Smear and Antigen Detection Test in Diagnosis of Malaria in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Jalandhar

Background: Malaria can cause fatal complications if the diagnosis and treatment are delayed. So, quick detection and early treatment of malaria are the best policies for the management of disease. Microscopy has been the gold standard for malaria diagnosis for decades. Recently, many new rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are being widely used. We have made an attempt to compare peripheral smear and rapid antigen detection methods for the diagnosis of malaria. Material and methods: A total of 500 blood samples were collected from patients presenting with symptoms of malaria. Thin and thick blood smears were prepared and stained with Leishman’s stain. Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) HRP-2 antigen and Plasmodium vivax (Pv) specific pLDH detection was done using rapid test device for malaria diagnosis. Results: Out of the 500 blood samples tested, only 3.4% were positive for malaria. Difference between the positivity for Plasmodium species by both methods was 0.6%. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values were 85%, 99.6%, 89.5% and 99.4%, respectively with peripheral blood film (PBF) method. Conclusion: The study highlights that the RDT, for diagnosis of malaria, is as reliable as microscopy. Microscopy is simple, economical, sensitive and specific but it is time consuming and requires a microscope. In places where such facilities are not available, rapid, simple and easy to interpret antigen detection test can be done

Neutrosophic Rare alfa-Continuity

In this paper, we introduce the concepts of neutrosophic rare -continuous, neutrosophic rarely continuous, neutrosophic rarely pre-continuous, neutrosophic rarely semi-continuous<br>are introduced and studied in light of the concept of rare set in neutrosophic setting