1. Evaluation of molecular techniques to visceral leishmaniasis detection in asymptomatic patients: a systematic review
- Author
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Manoel Sebastião da Costa Lima Junior, Zulma Medeiros, Elis Dionísio da Silva, Amanda Tavares Xavier, Gilberto Silva Nunes Bezerra, Walter Lins Barbosa Júnior, Amanda Virginia Batista Vieira, and Pablo Cantalice Santos Farias
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Anemia ,business.industry ,medicine.disease ,Asymptomatic ,Dermatology ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,03 medical and health sciences ,030104 developmental biology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Visceral leishmaniasis ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Parasitic disease ,Genetics ,medicine ,Molecular Medicine ,Humans ,Leishmaniasis, Visceral ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Molecular Biology ,Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques - Abstract
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a systemic and neglected parasitic disease. Its main symptoms are fever, splenomegaly with or without hepatomegaly, and anemia, however, most individuals remain asymptomatic. Due to the lack of a gold standard and the limitations of current diagnostic techniques, where parasitology is ethically unfeasible for individuals without symptoms and serological tests do not differentiate between past and present disease, molecular methodologies are the most suitable.We performed a systematic review analyzing the molecular techniques based on PCR used, so far, to detect asymptomatic cases of VL in humans. Structured searches were carried out on PubMed, LILACS, Scopus, and Web of Science databases without time and language restrictions. Two reviewers evaluated the studies, performed data extraction, and quality assessment by assigning scores.qPCR using RNA targets can be used in the diagnosis of asymptomatic cases of human VL, due to its characteristics. We recommend further studies to analyze the methodology, mainly observing the use of different rRNA targets. Therefore, we hope that this technique contributed to the construction of public policies that address the diagnosis and handling of asymptomatic patients.
- Published
- 2021