Automated malaria diagnosis using pigment detection

Several new methods of malaria diagnosis have recently been developed, but these all rely on clinical suspicion and, consequently, an explicit clinica l request. Although some methods lend themselves to automation (eg. PCR), n o technique can yet be used for routine clinical automated screening. Detec tion of birefringent haemozoin has been used to diagnose malaria since the turn of the 20th century. A new generation of full blood count analysers, u sed widely in clinical laboratories, have the potential to defect haemozoin in white blood cells and probably erythrocytes. Thomas Hanscheid, Emilia V aladas and Martin Grobusch here describe this novel technique for malaria d iagnosis and discuss its potential applications.