A new diagnostic strategy which uses a luminol-H2O2 system to detect helminth eggs in fecal sediments processed by the Helmintex method.

Author summary Schistosomiasis, the infection caused by parasites of the genusSchistosoma, is still a significant health problem in many countries, despite some successful control efforts. In areas where parasite load is low and few eggs are released in feces, most diagnostic tests fail to detect the infections. Helmintex is a very sensitive, but time consuming, egg-detection method, with most time being consumed in observations of samples at the microscope. Here we report standardization of an innovative luminol-H(2)O(2)chemiluminescence reaction triggered bySchistosoma mansonieggs that may improve their detection in feces. Improved diagnostic tests are urgently required as part of the schistosomiasis elimination efforts. Schistosomiasis remains a serious public health problem in tropical regions, affecting more than 250 million people. Sensitive diagnostic methods represent key tools for disease elimination, in particular in areas with low endemicity. Advances in the use of luminol-based chemiluminescent techniques have enabled greater sensitivity and speed in obtaining results in different diagnostic settings. In this study, we developed a luminol-H(2)O(2)chemiluminescence (CL) method to detectSchistosoma mansonieggs in human fecal sediments processed by the Helmintex (HTX) method. AfterS.mansonieggs were incubated with a solution of luminol-H(2)O(2)the light emission was detected and measured by spectrophotometry at 431 nm for 5 min, using detection and counts of eggs by bright field optical microscopy as a reference. CL intensity was found to correlate with different sources and numbers of eggs. Furthermore, our results showed that the CL method can distinguish positive from negative samples with 100% sensitivity and 71% specificity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the use of CL for the diagnosis of helminths from fecal samples. The combination of the HTX method with CL represents an important advance in providing a reference method with the highest standards of sensitivity.