Standardization and Evaluation of the LAMP Technique for the Diagnosis of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis in Conjunctival Swab Samples Using DNA Extracted by a Silica Column and Boiling.

The diagnosis of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) presents a challenge due to a variety of non-specific clinical signs. The available tests have low sensitivity. This study aimed to standardize and evaluate the loop-mediated isothermal amplification technique with K26 target (K26-LAMP) for diagnosis of CVL in conjunctival swab (CS) DNA samples extracted through a silica column commercial kit (SW-kit) and boiling (SW-DB) and to compare sensitivity with conventional PCR (kDNA-cPCR) and quantitative real-time PCR (18S-qPCR).

Clinical and parasitological features of Leishmania infection among gold miners in the Oiapoque basin, an international Brazil-French Guiana border.

Gold miners working illegally in mines live in poor health conditions related to their strenuous work and precarious housing. Therefore, they are at higher risk for infectious diseases. American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) appears to be of great concern to the population living in the Guiana Shield region.

An old drug and different ways to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis: Intralesional and intramuscular meglumine antimoniate in a reference center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Background: Treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) remains challenging since the drugs currently used are quite toxic, thus contributing to lethality unrelated to the disease itself but to adverse events (AE). The main objective was to evaluate different treatment regimens with meglumine antimoniate (MA), in a reference center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Methodology: A historical cohort of 592 patients that underwent physical and laboratory examination were enrolled between 2000 and 2017.

Comparison of parasite load by qPCR and histopathological changes of inner and outer edge of ulcerated cutaneous lesions of cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an infectious vector-borne disease caused by protozoa of the Leishmania genus that affects humans and animals. The distribution of parasites in the lesion is not uniform, and there are divergences in the literature about the choice of the better sampling site for diagnosis-inner or outer edge of the ulcerated skin lesion. In this context, determining the region of the lesion with the highest parasite density and, consequently, the appropriate site for collecting samples can define the success of the laboratory diagnosis.

Geospatial analysis of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil from 2000 to 2015: Species typing and flow of travelers and migrants with leishmaniasis.

Background: We identified the species of Leishmania isolated from traveling and migrant patients attended in a reference center from 2000 to 2015, we performed the georeferencing of these species in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state and we had knowledge about the human flows between the likely location of infection (LLI) and place of residence (PR) in RJ state, Brazil.

Methodology/principal Findings: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study including 171 patients diagnosed with ATL. Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and Bing Maps were tools used to georeference LLI and PR.

Thick Smear is a Good Substitute for the Thin Smear in Parasitological Confirmation of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis.

Although direct examination methods are important for diagnosing leishmaniasis, such methods are often neglected because of their low sensitivity relative to other techniques. Our study aimed to evaluate the performance of bone marrow (BM) thick smears and cytocentrifugation tests as alternatives to direct examination for diagnosing canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL). Ninety-two dogs exhibiting leishmaniasis seroreactivity were evaluated.

Intestinal helminth coinfection is associated with mucosal lesions and poor response to therapy in American tegumentary leishmaniasis.

The most severe clinical form of American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) due to Leishmania braziliensis is mucosal leishmaniasis (ML), characterized by destructive lesions in the facial mucosa. We performed a retrospective cohort study of 109 ATL patients from Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, where ATL is caused by L. braziliensis, to evaluate the influence of intestinal parasite coinfections in the clinical course of ATL.

Tegumentary leishmaniasis: a diagnostic approach considering aspects of the cytological examination.

Objective: To elaborate figures that highlight the microscopic appearance of amastigote forms of the genus Leishmania and other structures subject to confusion during the routine of the direct examination of tegumentary leishmaniasis (TL).

Study Design: We reviewed imprint and scraping slides previously prepared from patients with a definite diagnosis. Smear examinations were performed with an immersion objective (×1,000) selecting structures of interest for photodocumentation and elaboration of the illustrations.

Expansion of visceral leishmaniasis in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: report of the first autochthonous case in the municipality of Volta Redonda and the difficulty of diagnosis.

Visceral Leishmaniasis has been showing remarkable epidemiological changes in recent decades, with marked expansion and an emergence of cases in urban areas of the North, Southeast and Midwest regions of Brazil. The Kala-azar cases reported here, despite being very characteristic, presented a great difficulty of diagnosis, because the disease is not endemic in Volta Redonda. The child underwent two hospitalizations in different hospitals, but got the correct diagnosis only after 11 months of symptom onset.

Comparison of the sensitivity of imprint and scraping techniques in the diagnosis of American tegumentary leishmaniasis in a referral centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) is an infectious disease that presents a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations making parasitological tests important for its diagnosis. Direct examination, although considered of low sensitivity is still employed mainly in areas with poor laboratory infrastructure. The aim of this study was to standardize the method of collecting and reading the scraping procedure and to then compare sensitivity of this procedure on two sites of the lesion (outer edge-OE and inner edge-IE) and of the imprint against the reference method (isolation in culture) in a group of 110 patients treated at a Referral Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.