Towards malaria microscopy at the point-of-contact: an assessment of the diagnostic performance of the Newton Nm1 microscope in Uganda

Stothard, Russell ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9370-3420, Nabatte, Betty, Sousa-Figueiredo, J.C. and Kabatereine, Narcis B. (2014) 'Towards malaria microscopy at the point-of-contact: an assessment of the diagnostic performance of the Newton Nm1 microscope in Uganda'. Parasitology, Vol 141, Issue 14, pp. 1819-1825.

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Abstract

Malaria microscopy in sub-Saharan Africa is often restricted by access to light microscopes. To address this gap, a novel portable inverted monocular microscope, the Newton Nm1, was designed and is now commercially available. Its diagnostic performance was assessed in a blinded-slide trial at ×1000 (oil) of Giemsa-stained thick blood films against a conventional microscope as undertaken by four Ugandan Ministry of Health technicians. With the Newton Nm1, diagnostic performance was: sensitivity 93·5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 78·6–99·2%), specificity 100·0% (95% CI 82·4–100·0%), positive predictive value 100·0% (95% CI 88·1–100·0%) and negative predictive value 90·5% (95% CI 69·6–98·8%). Discordance was due to a systematic error underestimating parasitaemia by ∼45%; when counting Plasmodium parasites against 200 white blood cells, blood films with low parasitaemia (i.e. <100 μL−1 of blood) could be overlooked and misclassified. By contrast, specificity was excellent with no false positives encountered. Whilst proven useful, especially in resource-poor environments, it is still unclear how we can ensure the uptake of the Newton Nm1 within sub-Saharan Africa.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	(Symposia of the British Society for Parasitology Volume 52 Advances in diagnostics for parasitic diseases)
Subjects:	QY Clinical Pathology > QY 25 Laboratory techniques and procedure WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 750 Malaria WN Radiology. Diagnostic imaging > WN 180 Diagnostic imaging (General)
Faculty: Department:	Biological Sciences > Department of Tropical Disease Biology
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182014000833
Depositing User:	Lynn Roberts-Maloney
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2014 10:38
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2019 12:52
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/4507

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