Evaluation of polymerase chain reaction as an additional tool for the diagnosis of low-intensity Schistosoma mansoni infection.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as an alternative tool for diagnosing schistosomiasis in individuals with low-level parasite burden from areas of low endemicity or under occasional risk of infection by Schistosoma mansoni. A total of 102 samples were tested in this study using 2 PCR assays utilizing distinct primer pairs. One of the primer pairs was targeted to a highly repeated 121-base pair sequence of S.