Detection of Intestinal Parasites With Automated Sedimax2®. A New Step in the Parasitological Diagnosis in High Throughput Laboratories.

Despite the low prevalence of parasitic infections in Europe, the diagnosis of intestinal parasites is difficult and laborious for microbiology laboratories. Currently, the antigens detection kits and the molecular biology have allowed an easier diagnosis. But these techniques have also limitations due to the fact that they do not detect all possible parasites presents in the samples. The objective of the study was to evaluate the accuracy and the usefulness of SediMAX2® (77 Elektronika, Budapest, Hungary) automated microscopy in the detection of parasitic structures from feces. A total of 197 formol-fixed stool samples were processed in parallel with wet mount examination and by SediMAX2®. Sensitivities, specificities and predictive values were analyzed, reaching sensitivity of 89.51% and specificity of 98.15%. Predictive values were also calculated with a very good positive predictive value (99.22%). SediMAX2® is a good tool for a reliable diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections. The easiness of use, processing and the flexibility in the images analyse allows its incorporation in the day to day laboratory work as an extra step for the parasitologists workload.