Blinded, Externally Controlled Multicenter Evaluation of Light Microscopy and PCR for Detection of Microsporidia in Stool Specimens |
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| Authors: | Heinz Rinder, Klaus Janitschke, Horst Asp ck, Alexandre J. Da Silva, Peter Deplazes, Daniel P. Fedorko, Caspar Franzen, Ursula Futh, Frank Hü nger, Anselm Lehmacher, Christian G. Meyer, Jean-Michel Molina, J rg Sandfort, Rainer Weber, Thomas L scher, the Diagnostic Multicenter Study Group on Microsporidia&#x |
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| Affiliation: | Heinz Rinder, Klaus Janitschke, Horst Aspöck, Alexandre J. Da Silva, Peter Deplazes, Daniel P. Fedorko, Caspar Franzen, Ursula Futh, Frank Hünger, Anselm Lehmacher, Christian G. Meyer, Jean-Michel Molina, Jörg Sandfort, Rainer Weber, Thomas Löscher, and the Diagnostic Multicenter Study Group on Microsporidia† |
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| Abstract: | The quality parameters for the detection of microsporidia in identical sets of 50 stool samples were determined for six laboratories where technicians used light microscopy and for six laboratories where technicians used PCR. The average overall sensitivities were 67% (89% for patient samples only) for the PCR laboratories and 54% (80% for patient samples only) for the light microscopy laboratories. Specificities were 98 and 95%, respectively. Differences in results were most apparent between the individual laboratories rather than between the two major methods used. |
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