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Biomedical subjects

J K Baird

Publications and source records attributed to J K Baird.

84 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Diagnosis of malaria in the field by fluorescence microscopy of QBC capillary tubes.

The diagnostic performance of commercial capillary tubes containing acridine orange dye (QBC) was compared with the standard diagnosis of malaria by microscopical examination of Giemsa-stained thick blood films (GTS) in remote field conditions. The comparison was conducted among 165 volunteers living in northeastern Irian Jaya, Indonesia, an area having hyperendemic malaria transmission. By GTS, 65 volunteers were positive for malaria, but only 49 were judged positive by QBC. Among the 100 blood films found negative by GTS, 5 were considered positive by QBC. Thus, relative to a GTS standard, the sensitivity and specificity of the QBC was 75% and 95%, respectively. The mean limit of detection for the QBC was approximately 60 parasites per microliter blood, whereas the limit of detection for GTS was 20 parasites per microliter blood. Also, a number of practical difficulties were encountered using the QBC at the field site. The QBC approach to diagnosis of malaria was less sensitive and more inconvenient than GTS under the conditions in remote Irian Jaya.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMedDate not supplied

QBC and Giemsa-stained thick blood films: diagnostic performance of laboratory technologists.

This study compared the proficiency of military medical technicians in the diagnosis of malaria using Giemsa-stained thick blood films (GSF) and the QBC system. Fourteen technicians, with no previous experience of the QBC and limited experience in interpreting GSF, were given training in the 2 techniques and then tested on their ability to make a malaria diagnosis when provided with previously prepared GSF and QBC specimens (9 positive and 10 negative). The students achieved a sensitivity of 75% and 84%, respectively, with the QBC and GSF; specificity was 84% and 76%. There was no difference in the concordance of the 2 techniques with the actual diagnosis (80% vs. 81%).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Survey of resistance to chloroquine by Plasmodium vivax in Indonesia.

In February 1995 we surveyed to chloroquine among patients with Plasmodium vivax malaria at Nias Island, in the Indian Ocean near north-western Sumatra, Indonesa. The subjects, 21 indigenous males and females (6-50 years old) infected with > 40 asexual blood stage parasites of P. vivax per microliter of blood, had mild symptoms or none at all. Seven of these patients had > 100 ng/mL whole blood chloroquine levels before the first supervised dose of chloroquine (3 doses of 10 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg, 5 mg/kg of base given at 24 h intervals). Whole blood chloroquine levels on the last day of dosing confirmed normal absorption (range 413-3248, mean 1141, SD 616 ng/mL). Blood films were examined on days 0, 2, 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21 and 28 after initiating therapy. Three patients had recurrent asexual P. vivax parasitaemias between days 14 and 18, despite effective levels of chloroquine in whole blood (> or = 100 ng/mL) at the time of recurrence. Resistance to standard chloroquine therapy by P. vivax appeared in 14% of infections among residents of Nias.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevalence of malaria in native and transmigrant populations. Effects of age and history of exposure.

A malaria prevalence study was performed in a village in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, that contains a population of people who have been exposed lifelong to hyperendemic malaria and another population of people who had arrived 18 months previously from areas of very low endemicity. Mean spleen sizes correlated positively with prevalence of malaria, not resistance to it. Prevalence of sexual and asexual blood stage parasites was higher in transmigrants than in the natives. The data also show that clinical resistance to malaria in this part of the world includes resistance to Plasmodium falciparum gametocytemia and that this is not the passive byproduct of a reduction in asexual parasites. This indicates that the introduction of native people into a populated malarious area will increase the percent of gametocyte carriers and may, thereby, increase the entomologic inoculation rate.

Adolescent↗