COMPARISON OF 2 CENTRIFUGATION PROCEDURES IN THE FORMALIN-ETHYL ACETATE STOOL CONCENTRATION TECHNIQUE FOR THE DETECTION OF CRYPTOSPORIDIUM OOCYSTS

A comparison between the standard formalin-ethyl acetate (FEA) stool c oncentration procedure (centrifugation at 400 g for 2 min) and a modif ication proposed to increase the recovery of Cryptosporidium oocysts ( 500 g for 10 min) was performed on 73 formalin-preserved stool specime ns known to be positive for Cryptosporidium. False-negative results we re obtained with both methods, but the increase in centrifugation time and force resulted in the detection of a higher number of oocysts and positive samples. The modified procedure had a sensitivity significan tly higher than the standard method (99% compared to 86%, P = 0.0045). Copyright (C) 1996 Australian Society for Parasitology.