The accurate identification of malaria infected individuals
is vital both to treating infected individuals and to
effectively reducing the reservoirs of infection for malaria.
Although many molecular and biochemical approaches
have been successfully used to detect and diagnose malaria
infected individuals, many of these techniques remain cost
prohibitive in rural areas. In addition, due to the relatively
high rate of false positive results from many of these
techniques, microscopic confirmation of malaria infection
is often performed and remains the gold standard of malaria
diagnosis around the world[4, 5].
Previous research has shown that malaria infected cells are
of a different density than uninfected cells and that through
centrifugation infected cells can be concentrated, thus
increasing the sensitivity of malaria diagnosis. Although
increasing the sensitivity of microscopic examination
through centrifugation has been shown to improve the
accuracy of plasmodium detection, in many areas of the
world the additional cost, maintenance, as well as the need
for electricity, associated with centrifugation is sometimes
prohibitive. In this study, experiments were designed to
test the effectiveness of gravitational sedimentation of RBCs
within a hematocrit tube followed by thin smear preparation
compared to results from standard thin blood smears and
patient blood samples concentrated through mechanical
centrifugation.