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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1999, p. 2992-2996, Vol. 37, No. 9
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Detection of the Plasmodium falciparum
Antigen Histidine-Rich Protein 2 in Blood of Pregnant Women:
Implications for Diagnosing Placental Malaria
Rose F. G.
Leke,1
Rosine
R.
Djokam,1
Robinson
Mbu,1
Robert J.
Leke,1
Josephine
Fogako,1
Rosette
Megnekou,1
Simon
Metenou,1
Grace
Sama,1
Yuan
Zhou,2
Timothy
Cadigan,2
Marcela
Parra,2 and
Diane
Wallace
Taylor2,*
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences,
The Biotechnology Center, University of Yaounde 1, Yaounde,
Cameroon,1 and Department of Biology,
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 200572
Received 9 February 1999/Returned for modification 7 April
1999/Accepted 7 June 1999
 |
ABSTRACT |
Pregnant women have an increased susceptibility to infection by
Plasmodium falciparum. Parasites may be present in the
placenta yet not detectable in peripheral blood smears by routine light microscopy. In order to determine how frequently misdiagnosis occurs,
peripheral blood and placental samples were collected from 1,077 Cameroonian women at the time of giving birth and examined for the
presence of malarial parasites by using light microscopy. Results
showed that 20.1% of the women who had placental malaria were
peripheral blood smear negative. Thus, malarial infection was not
detected by microscopic examination of peripheral blood smears from
approximately one out of five malaria-infected women. Since P. falciparum parasites secrete histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP-2), we
sought to determine if detecting HRP-2 in either peripheral plasma or
whole blood might be used to diagnose the presence of parasites
"hidden" in the placenta. Samples of peripheral plasma from 127 women with different levels of placental malarial infection were
assayed by HRP-2-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. HRP-2 was
detected in 88% of the women with placental malaria who tested
negative by blood smear. Additionally, whole blood was obtained from
181 women and tested for HRP-2 with a rapid, chromatographic strip test
(ICT). The ICT test accurately detected malarial infection in 89.1% of
P. falciparum-infected women. Furthermore, 94% of women
with malaria were accurately diagnosed by using a combination of
microscopy and the ICT test. Thus, detection of HRP-2 in conjunction
with microscopy should improve diagnosis of malaria in pregnant women.
 |
INTRODUCTION |
Women living in areas where malaria
is endemic have an increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum
infection during pregnancy (reviewed in reference
14). Malarial parasites accumulate and multiply
within the intervillous spaces of the placenta, creating a condition
often referred to as placental malaria. As a result, high numbers of
trophozoite and schizont stage parasites may be found in the placenta
(4, 13). Within the placenta, parasites develop into
trophozoites and schizonts, and their presence often induces an
inflammatory-type response resulting in the accumulation of macrophages
(5, 12, 27); elevated levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha,
gamma interferon, transforming growth factor
, and interleukin-2
(8); and alteration in syncytiotrophoblasts (5, 12, 27,
30). As a result, placental parasitemias increase the risk of a
woman delivering a low-birthweight infant due to prematurity or
intrauterine growth retardation (reviewed in reference
14). Thus, placental malaria is an important
clinical problem, especially for the developing fetus. If properly
diagnosed, however, antimalarial chemotherapeutic treatment can be
initiated to prevent the problem (29).
Previous studies have reported that parasites may not be detected by
microscopy of the peripheral blood of women with placental malaria
(3, 7). The proportion of pregnant women, however, who are
not diagnosed by routine microscopic examination of peripheral blood
smears is unclear. The present study sought to address this question
and found that parasites were not detected by microscopy in the
peripheral blood smears of 20.9% of the women who had parasites present in the placenta. Thus, the routine method for diagnosing malaria failed to detect parasites in approximately one out of five
pregnant women who were infected with malarial parasites, demonstrating
the need for an improved diagnostic approach.
Currently, alternative methods for detecting malarial parasites hidden
within the placenta are not available. It has been shown that P. falciparum parasites release antigens that circulate in the
peripheral blood. In the present study, we sought to determine if
detecting the P. falciparum-specific antigen histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP-2) in peripheral blood could be used to diagnose placental malaria. We selected this antigen because Howard et al.
demonstrated that P. falciparum cultured in vitro
synthesizes and secretes HRP-2 during the trophozoite and schizont
stages of development (11). Subsequent studies have shown
that HRP-2 is present in the plasma of persons who are infected with
P. falciparum (6, 16), is produced by all natural
strains and isolates of P. falciparum tested
(19), and is apparently antigenically invariant
(28). HRP-2 contains multiple tandem repeats of AHHAAD interspersed with AHH and AHHAA (28). As a result,
HRP-2 has repetitive B-cell epitopes that allow one to easily detect it by using an antigen capture assay (1, 9, 24, 26). The goal
of this project was to determine if assays which detect the malarial
antigen HRP-2 could be used to successfully diagnose placental malaria.
 |
MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Collection of blood and placental samples.
The study was
conducted over a 3-year period (February 1995 to December 1998) in
Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Women participating in the study had
been repeatedly infected with P. falciparum throughout their
lives and had developed immunity to the organism. They were essentially
healthy at the time of giving birth and did not show clinical signs of
malaria. Informed consent was obtained from each woman. Then, ~8 ml
of heparinized venous peripheral blood was collected. Immediately
following delivery, the placenta was obtained, and samples of maternal
placental blood were collected. To collect the blood, the placenta was
placed with the maternal surface upwards, a shallow incision was made
with scissors, and blood was collected from the intervillous spaces
with a heparinized syringe. In addition, a small piece of placental
tissue (~2.5 cm3) was removed from the center of the
placenta and used to prepare impression smears (see below).
Detection of malarial parasites by light microscopy.
Complete parasitological data based on microscopy was available for
1,077 women. In this study, a woman was diagnosed as being infected
with P. falciparum (i.e., malaria positive) if parasites were detected by light microscopy in either the peripheral blood or
samples collected from the placenta. A woman was considered to be
malaria negative if parasites were not found in either site.
Routine methods were used to prepare thick and thin blood smears of the
peripheral blood. Following staining with Diff-quick (Baxter
International, Inc., Deerfield, Ill.), the slides were examined by two
microscopists who scanned through 100 fields of the thin film
containing ~200 erythrocytes each. If parasites were seen, the
percent parasitemia was reported based on the number of parasitized
erythrocytes per ~10,000 erythrocytes. If parasites were not found in
the thin film, then 200 fields of the thick films were examined. If
parasites were again not found, the woman was considered to be
peripheral blood smear negative. This microscopic method is routinely
used to diagnose malaria (17).
Following preparation of blood smears, heparinized blood samples were
centrifuged, and plasma was removed and stored at

20°C.
As
described below, 127 of these plasma samples were analyzed
by
HRP-2-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA).
In order to detect parasites in the placenta (i.e., placental malaria),
thick and thin blood films of maternal placental blood
were prepared,
stained, and examined for the presence of parasites
as described above.
In addition, pieces of placental tissues were
used to prepare
impression smears. In brief, a piece of the placenta
(~1
mm
3) was blotted on filter paper and then pressed 6 to 10 times against
a glass slide. After drying, impression smears were
fixed, stained
with Diff-quick, and examined by two microscopists for
the presence
of malarial parasites. Parasitemias were determined by
counting
the number of infected cells per 500 erythrocytes seen on
impression
smears. Impression smears allow the microscopist to detect
parasites
lodged in the small sinuses located among placental villi
(i.e.,
in the site where they are sequestered). Based on the presence
or absence of parasites, women were determined to be positive
or
negative for placental
malaria.
Detection of HRP-2 in plasma by using an HRP-2-specific
ELISA.
In November 1996, we began evaluating the possibility of
detecting HRP-2 in peripheral plasma as a way of diagnosing placental malaria. Based on the cryopreserved plasma samples available to us at
that time, representative samples (n = 127) were
selected for evaluation. A total of 74 samples from women with
different levels of peripheral and placental parasitemias were
evaluated. Of the 74 samples, 20 were from women who had placental
malaria but were peripheral blood smear negative (i.e., those who had been misdiagnosed by light microscopy). In addition, plasma collected during the same time period from women who were determined to be
malarial parasite negative by microscopy (n = 53) were
also tested.
The ELISA used in the present study has been described previously
(
24,
26). It uses a pair of monoclonal antibodies (MAb)
that
has been well characterized (
16). In brief, microtiter
wells
(Maxisorp; Nunc, Inc.) were coated with 1 µg of purified
MAb 1E1
(immunoglobulin M). Following blocking with 10% Carnation
instant milk
in 0.1 M phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.2,
containing 0.01%
Tween 20 (PBS-Tw), 50 µl of plasma diluted 1:1
with PBS was added,
and the mixture was incubated at room temperature
for 60 min. Following
washing, 50 µl of diluted alkaline phosphatase-labeled
MAb 2G12
(immunoglobulin G1) was added for 60 min. Following washing
with
PBS-Tw, 100 µl of substrate (5-mg tablet of
p-nitrophenyl
phosphate [Sigma 104; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo.] dissolved
in 5 ml of buffer [97 ml of diethanolamine plus 101 mg of
Mg
2Cl
· 6H
2O in 800 ml of water, pH
9.6]) was added. After ~15 min,
the optical density (OD) was
determined with a BioTech Multiscan
ELISA reader at 405 and 630 nm. All
samples were assayed in at
least duplicate. Plasma from nonpregnant
Cameroonian adults who
were peripheral blood smear negative (i.e.,
presumed to be malaria
negative), cord blood from Cameroonian newborns
(malaria-negative),
and blood from unexposed adults in the United
States were used
as negative controls. The mean OD for negative plasma
plus 4 standard
deviations was used as a
cutoff.
To verify the linearity and sensitivity of the HRP-2-specific ELISA, an
extract containing known amounts of in vitro-cultured
P. falciparum-parasitized erythrocytes was prepared. In brief,
in
vitro cultures of
P. falciparum (NF-54 strain) were
harvested
when parasitemias reached ~1%, and cells were washed and
frozen
at

65°C. Immediately prior to use, an aliquot was defrosted,
serially diluted in PBS-Tw, and used in the assay. An equivalent
preparation of uninfected human erythrocytes was prepared and
used as a
negative control. In addition, the assay was evaluated
by using
purified recombinant HRP-2, which was kindly provided
by R. Howard and
B.
Pasloske.
Detection of P. falciparum by PCR analysis.
In
this study, some samples tested positive for HRP-2 by ELISA but were
slide negative for parasites when tested by microscopy. To determine if
parasites were present at submicroscopic levels, these samples were
analyzed with the nested PCR described by Snounou et al. (22,
23). Cryopreserved erythrocytes from 38 samples were available
for study. In brief, cryopreserved erythrocytes were lysed with 0.05%
saponin, and freed parasites were pelleted by centrifugation and lysed
with 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate. Parasite DNA was purified with
phenol-chloroform, precipitated with sodium acetate and ethanol, and
amplified with genus-specific primers followed by amplification with
P. falciparum-specific primers (22, 23). The
amplified DNA was electrophoresed on an agarose gel and visualized with
ethidium bromide.
Detection of HRP-2 in whole blood using the ICT malaria Pf
Test.
In 1996, the ICT malaria Pf test (Amrad ICT, Sydney, New
South Wales, Australia) which detects HRP-2 in whole blood
(9) was reported. This test was performed according to the
manufacturer's instructions. In brief, the kit contains a cardboard
book with a chromatographic test strip on one side. First, 10 µl of
whole blood was applied to the sample pad, which contains a
colloidal-gold-labeled MAb to HRP-2 and a lysing agent. Then, 4 drops
of the buffer provided in the kit was added, causing the reactants to
migrate up the strip and cross a second MAb line. Blood was cleared
from the strip by back flushing the strip with the buffer provided. A
control line on the membrane turns pink if the test has been conducted properly. Tests in which the control line turned pink but the test line
was negative were scored as negative, while those samples for which
both the control and test lines were pink were scored as positive.
Since the ICT assay uses whole blood (not plasma), between May and
November 1996, this test was evaluated by using whole fresh blood from
181 women who agreed to participate.
Statistical analysis.
Since results obtained in the ELISA
showed a direct relationship between amount of HRP-2 and OD all
associations are reported as parametric Pearson product moment correlations.
 |
RESULTS |
Placental and peripheral parasitemias in Cameroonian women.
Microscopic examination of peripheral and placental samples collected
at the time of childbirth from 1,077 women showed that 21.9% of the
women were infected with malarial parasites (i.e., parasites were
detected by microcopy in either peripheral blood smears or placental
samples). Among the women who had malaria, 20.9% of those who had
placental malaria were peripheral blood smear negative. Placental
parasitemias ranged from 0.001 to 65%. The distribution of placental
parasitemias among the malaria-positive women is shown in Table
1. As can be seen, the majority of women who were infected with P. falciparum had placental
parasitemias between 0.11 and 10%. Approximately 12% of the remaining
women had either very high (>10%) or very low (<0.1%) parasitemias. Fewer than 2% of the women in this study were found to have parasites in the peripheral blood but not in the placenta.
The data in Table
1 shows the percentages of parasitemia observed in
the peripheral blood of women with different degrees
of placental
malaria. In general, mean peripheral parasitemias
increased as
placental parasitemias increased. A proportion of
women with placental
parasitemias below 10% were, however, blood
smear negative. For
example, 54.3% of women with placental parasitemias
less than 0.1%,
and 34.9% of women with placental parasitemias
between 0.11 and 1.0%,
were peripheral blood smear negative (Table
1). Surprisingly, 10.8% of
women with placental parasitemias
between 1 and 10% were also
misdiagnosed. Women with placental
parasitemias of greater than 10%
were routinely peripheral blood
smear positive and accurately diagnosed
by
microscopy.
Evaluation of the HRP-2-specific ELISA for diagnosing placental
malaria in pregnant women.
The ELISA used in this study has been
previously described (24, 26), but its ranges of linearity
and sensitivity have not been reported. Periodically, recombinant HRP-2
(rHRP-2) and extracts containing a known number of P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes and normal erythrocytes were
tested in the assay. Representative curves obtained by using rHRP-2 at
the beginning and end of the study are shown in Fig.
1. Inserted within the figure are OD
values for serial dilutions of P. falciparum-infected
erythrocytes. As can be seen, the assay is semiquantitative for 10- to
100-ng samples of rHRP-2, is useful over a wide range of parasitemias,
and was stable throughout the study. Using a cutoff of the mean ± 2 standard deviations above the background control (diluent without
rHRP-2 or normal erythrocytes), the assay has a lower level of
detection of ~2 to 4 ng of HRP-2 and the ability to detect the
equivalent of approximately five parasites per microliter of blood.

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|
FIG. 1.
The HRP-2-specific ELISA. rHRP-2 was used in the assay
to demonstrate the relationship between OD and the relative amounts of
HRP-2 detected. Two representative curves, one from the beginning of
the study in 1996 and one from the end of the study in 1998, are shown.
Using a cutoff of mean ± 2 standard deviations (no HRP-2), the
assay was found to have a lower limit of detection in the range of 2 to
4 ng of HRP-2. For comparison, OD values for an extract containing
different numbers of parasites are included to help evaluate the
practical sensitivity of the assay.
|
|
In the initial experiment, we sought to compare the level of HRP-2 in
peripheral plasma with that in placental plasma, i.e.,
where the
parasites were sequestered, as well as to compare the
OD obtained in
the ELISA with percent parasitemia. Results (
n = 74)
showed that there was a significant correlation between
the amount of
HRP-2 in paired peripheral and placental plasma
(
r = 0.369,
p < 0.001) and a moderate association between placental
parasitemias of 1 to 10% and placental HRP-2 levels (
r = 0.550,
p < 0.02). There was no convincing association,
however, between
the amount of HRP-2 present in peripheral plasma and
peripheral
or placental
parasitemias.
To evaluate the potential use of the ELISA in diagnosing placental
malaria, peripheral plasma samples from women with different
levels of
placental parasitemias, as well as samples from women
who tested
malaria negative by light microscopy, were tested with
the ELISA.
Results from light microscopy and the ELISA were compared
(Table
2). The two assays were found to be
similar in sensitivity
at higher parasitemias, but the ELISA was more
sensitive at lower
parasitemias (<0.1%) (Table
2). For example,
when placental parasitemias
were very low (0.001 to 0.1%), only 45.6%
of the women had levels
of parasites in their peripheral blood which
were detectable by
microscopy, whereas 66.7% had circulating HRP-2.
Of the malaria-positive women chosen for the ELISA study, 20 had
placental malaria but were blood smear negative. Among these
women, all
five with low placental parasitemias (<0.1%) tested
positive by
ELISA, and 10 of 12 with moderate placental parasitemias
(0.1 to 1.0%)
tested positive. Overall, ELISA detected the infections
in 88% of the
malaria-parasite-positive women in this group. Only
three samples were
available from women with placental parasitemias
greater than 1% who
were blood smear negative. Data from these
samples, plus samples from
26 additional women with high parasitemias
(>1%) who were blood smear
positive, showed that 89.7% (26 of
29) of these women were also
positive for HRP-2 (Table
2). Thus,
the ELISA proved to be effective in
detecting HRP-2 in the peripheral
plasma of women who were infected
with
malaria.
HRP-2 was also detected by ELISA in 49% of the samples from pregnant
women who tested parasite negative by microscopy (Table
2). Because of
the apparently high level of false-positive reactions,
38 of the
HRP-2-positive, slide-negative samples were analyzed
with a PCR-based
system for detection of
P. falciparum small subribosomal
DNA
(
22). Sixty-five percent of the samples that tested positive
for HRP-2 by ELISA also tested positive for
P. falciparum by
PCR,
validating the high sensitivity of the HRP-2-specific ELISA (see
Discussion).
Evaluating the ICT strip test with whole blood.
Since the ICT
strip test is commercially available and can easily be used by health
care workers in many situations, we sought to evaluate its accuracy for
detecting malarial infection in pregnant women and, specifically, its
potential for detecting placental P. falciparum malaria.
Microscopic examination of peripheral blood and placental samples from
181 Cameroonian women showed that 35.4% (64 of 181) of the women had
malaria at the time of delivery. Microscopically, parasites were
detected in the peripheral blood and placentas of 84% (54/64) of these
women; 16% (10 of 64) of the women had placental malaria but were
peripheral blood smear negative.
A direct comparison of results obtained by microscopic examination of
peripheral blood smears with those from the ICT test
showed that the
strip test had a sensitivity of 94.4% and a specificity
of 90.6%
(Table
3), which are similar to those
reported for this
assay in other situations (
9,
10,
18). If
one considers,
however, that 16% of the women were peripheral blood
smear negative
but had placental malaria, then the overall accuracy of
the test
for diagnosing malaria in pregnant women changes (Table
3).
The
ICT test correctly identified 57 of 64 women who had malaria (89%
sensitivity) and had a false-positivity rate of only 5.1% (6 of
117).
The specificity of the assay increased to 94.9% when placental
malaria
was considered (Table
3).
In summary, of the 64 women who had malaria, 84% (54 of 64) were
correctly diagnosed by routine microscopic detection of parasites
in
peripheral blood smears and 89.1% were correctly diagnosed
with the
ICT rapid strip test (57 of 64) with a false-positivity
rate of 5.1%;
however, 93.8% of the women were correctly diagnosed
using a
combination of microscopy and the ICT test. Thus, detection
of HRP-2 in
the peripheral blood in conjunction with microscopy
should improve
diagnosis of malaria during pregnancy, due to an
increased detection of
parasitemic patients without peripheral
parasitemias.
 |
DISCUSSION |
As noted above, studies have reported the absence of parasites in
the peripheral blood of women with placental malaria (reviewed in
reference 3), but the proportion of pregnant women
who are not diagnosed by routine microscopic examination of peripheral blood smears is unclear. Based on the examination of samples from 1,077 women, we found that 20.1% of women who had placental malaria tested
peripheral blood smear negative by microscopy and that this proportion
increased as placental parasitemias decreased. As shown in Table 1,
infections in approximately half of the women who had placental
parasitemias below 0.1% were not detected by microscopy. Even 10% of
women with high placental parasitemias (1 to 10%) tested negative. Of
course, accurate diagnosis by microscopy depends upon the availability
of good equipment for microscopic analysis, properly stained blood
smears, and well-trained technicians. The current study was conducted
in a modern research laboratory by highly experienced microscopists who
spent a significant amount of time searching for parasites. Thus, many
of the low parasitemias recorded here, e.g., 0.001% (which is
equivalent to one parasite per 100,000 erythrocytes), could have been
missed under less optimal conditions. Thus, in many clinical settings
the extent of misdiagnosis would likely be higher than that reported here.
Overall, the results show that detection of HRP-2 in peripheral blood
along with microcopy may improve diagnosis. The ELISA used in the
present study is highly sensitive and has a lower limit of detection,
in the range of ~2 to 4 ng of rHRP-2 in plasma or approximately five
parasites per microliter of whole blood (Fig. 1). The ELISA was field
tested in Thailand in 1993 and was reported to have a sensitivity of
98.1% and a specificity of 96.2% when using whole blood
(15). In conjunction with another study (2), we
screened 166 whole-blood samples from Cameroonian children with fever
and found the ELISA to have a sensitivity of 92.0% and a specificity
of 92.4% when compared to microscopy. Thus, there was good agreement
(in all the studies) between the presence and absence of malarial
infection detected by microscopy and the presence or absence of HRP-2.
In the study described here, the HRP-2-specific ELISA and microscopy
had similar sensitivities for detecting the prevalence of malarial
infection in pregnant women when placental parasitemias were greater
than 1%, but the ELISA was more sensitive than microscopy at lower
parasitemias (Table 2). HRP-2 was detected in the plasma of 88% (15 of
17) of women with placental malaria, less than 1% of whom were blood smear negative. Based on the data in Table 1, this is the group of
women in which placental malaria is most often misdiagnosed. We
therefore feel that the ELISA would be a good adjunct to light microscopy for diagnosing malaria during pregnancy.
The results shown in Table 2 also reveal that the ELISA detected HRP-2
in 49% of the samples obtained from pregnant women who were diagnosed
as being malarial parasite negative; i.e., parasites were not found by
microscopy in either peripheral blood smears or thick or thin
impression smears of the placenta. The difference between microscopy
and ELISA results in the current study on pregnant women was initially
surprising, since the rate of false positivity of the ELISA for
Cameroonian children (2) and Thai adults (15) was
less than 10%. We believe there are two explanations. First,
examination of placental impression smears showed the presence of both
free hemozoin pigment and pigment within macrophages, indicating the
presence of either a current subpatent or a very recent infection. It
is well established that HRP-2 may persist in the bloodstream for a
period of time (3 to 14 days) following the clearance of parasites
(15, 20, 21, 25, 26). Some, but not all, of the above women
may fall into this category. Second, as mentioned in the results, one
of the authors (R.R.D.) analyzed 38 of the slide-negative,
HRP-2-positive samples by PCR (22, 23) and detected parasite
DNA in 65% of the samples. Thus, many of the women who tested malarial
parasite negative by microscopy were actually infected with low levels of P. falciparum. The HRP-2-specific ELISA is highly
sensitive and may be of value when one needs to detect very low levels
of placental parasitemia.
Currently, two rapid chromatographic tests are commercially available
for detecting HRP-2 in blood. They are the ParaSight-F test (Becton
Dickinson and Co.) and the ICT test described herein. Both tests are
highly efficient in detecting malarial infection and appear to be
approximately equivalent in sensitivity and specificity (10,
18). The ParaSight-F test has been evaluated extensively in a
number of different countries (1, 10, 18, 20, 21, 25). We
can find no reference, however, to either chromatographic test being
examined previously for its ability to diagnose placental malaria in
pregnant women. As shown in Table 3, the ICT was found to be quite
efficient in detecting malarial infection in pregnant women. Microscopy
was efficient for diagnosing malarial infection in 84% of the women
with placental malaria; the ICT test had a sensitivity of 89%.
Unfortunately, 10.9% of the women who had placental malaria were still
not identified by the ICT test. Although placental parasitemias were
very low in many of these women, the parasite may still exert a
negative effect on maternal-fetal exchange. Consequently, additional
research is needed to develop more sensitive approaches for diagnosing
placental malaria.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
This work was supported by NIAID, NIH, grant UO1 AI35839. The ICT
malaria Pf test kits were provided by the manufacturer.
We thank the Honorable Minister of Health for permission, through M. Sosso, to work at the two hospitals; the administrative and nursing
staffs at Maternite Principale and Biyem-Assi hospitals for their
assistance; V. Titanji and R. Mimpfoundi for cooperative support at the
Biotechnology Center, where the laboratory work was conducted; A. Walker-Abbey for valuable discussions; and M. Sosso for his assistance
in making this project possible. We also thank the women who
contributed samples for participating in the study.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biology, Reiss Science Center, Rm. 334, Georgetown University, 37th and O St., NW, Washington, DC 20057. Phone: (202) 687-5972. Fax: (202) 687-5662. E-mail: taylordw{at}gusun.georgetown.edu.
 |
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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1999, p. 2992-2996, Vol. 37, No. 9
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