Standardization of blood smears prepared in transparent acetate: an alternative method for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria

Malaria Journal

Methodology

Marcia BC Mello¹  Fabio A Leal-Santos¹  Thamires M Gasquez¹  Eduardo R Alves²  Cor JF Fontes³  Francisco C Luz⁴ 

[1] Laboratório de Malária, Hospital Universitário Júlio Müller, Rua Prof Luiz Phelippe Pereira Leite s/n Alvorada, CEP:78048-250, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil;Laboratório de Malária, Hospital Universitário Júlio Müller, Rua Prof Luiz Phelippe Pereira Leite s/n Alvorada, CEP:78048-250, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil;Curso de Biomedicina, Centro Universitário UNIVAG, Várzea Grande, MT, Brazil;Laboratório de Malária, Hospital Universitário Júlio Müller, Rua Prof Luiz Phelippe Pereira Leite s/n Alvorada, CEP:78048-250, Cuiabá, MT, Brazil;Faculdade de Ciências Biomédicas (FACIMED), Cacoal, RO, Brazil;Núcleo de Medicina Tropical, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil;

关键词: Malaria;    Microscopy;    Blood smears;    Transparent acetate;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-13-238

 received in 2013-12-16, accepted in 2014-05-25,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundDue to students’ initial inexperience, slides are frequently broken and blood smears are damaged in microscopy training, leading to the need for their constant replacement. To minimize this problem a method of preparing blood smears on transparent acetate sheets was developed with the goal of implementing appropriate and more readily available teaching resources for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria.MethodsAcetate sheets derived from polyester were used to standardize the preparation and staining of thin and thick blood smears on transparent acetate sheets. Thick and thin blood smears were also prepared using the conventional method on glass slides. The staining was conducted using Giemsa staining for the thick and thin smears.ResultsMicroscopic examination (1,000x) of the thin and thick blood smears prepared on transparent acetate produced high-quality images for both the parasites and the blood cells. The smears showed up on a clear background and with minimal dye precipitation. It was possible to clearly identify the main morphological characteristics of Plasmodium, neutrophils and platelets. After 12 months of storage, there was no change in image quality or evidence of fungal colonization.ConclusionPreparation of thin and thick blood smears in transparent acetate for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria does not compromise the morphological and staining characteristics of the parasites or blood cells. It is reasonable to predict the applicability of transparent acetate in relevant situations such as the training of qualified professionals for the microscopic diagnosis of malaria and the preparation of positive specimens for competency assessment (quality control) of professionals and services involved in the diagnosis of malaria.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Mello et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.