Laboratory diagnostics of malaria ; Laboratorijska dijagnostika malarije

Malaria is a febrile illness, which is common in tropic and sub tropic countries. In more moderate climates, it can be seen in travellers or immigrants coming from endemic regions. Five Plasmodium species causes malaria in humans. The disease is spread by Anopheles mosquitos. Historically, malaria also occurred in Europe, for example in Croatia. Pesticide spraying and others epidemiological preventative methods eliminated malaria in Europe. Diagnosis of malaria is based on detection of Plasmodium parasites in the blood and patient history. Today’s gold standard remains light microscopy of blood smear, mostly with Giemsa stain, by trained and experienced personnel. In endemic countries, it is more difficult to use technical equipment due to scarce resources but staff is more familiar with malaria and Plasmodium microscopy while in non-endemic areas sophisticated technical equipment is easily available but staff does not have enough experience in Plasmodium microscopy. Besides light microscopy, today rapid antigen diagnostic tests and polymerase chain reaction became the mainstay of Plasmodium detection. Methods such as fluorescence microscopy antigen detection and isothermal amplification are under investigation to improve detection and reduce costs to make these methods available in endemic countries with scarce resources. ; Malarija je febrilna bolest, najčešća u tropskim i subtropskim krajevima svijeta. Može se naći i u drugim dijelovima svijeta, no tada se viđa u putnika ili u imigranata koji dolaze iz endemskih područja u kojima je infekcija prisutna. Malariju kod ljudi uzrokuje pet vrsta parazita roda Plasmodium, a kojeg prenosi komarac Anopheles. Malarije je bilo i u Europi, ujedno i u Hrvatskoj, no upotrebom pesticida i drugim epidemiološkim mjerama ista je iskorijenjena. Dijagnostika malarije bazira se na nalazu uzročnika u krvi, a značajna je jako i epideimološka anamneza uzeta od pacijenta. I danas je kao zlatni standard u dijagnostici malarije svjetlosna mikroskopija bojenog mikroskopskog preparata ...