Merits and pitfalls of currently used diagnostic tools in mycetoma

Reynolds, Todd y Van de Sande, Wendy W. J. y Fahal, Ahmed Hassan y Goodfellow, Michael y Mahgoub, El Sheikh y Welsh Lozano, Oliverio y Zijlstra, Ed E. (2014) Merits and pitfalls of currently used diagnostic tools in mycetoma. PloS Neglected tropical diseases, 8 (7). e2918. ISSN 1935-2727

Vista previa

Texto 363.PDF - Versión Publicada Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (13MB) | Vista previa

Resumen

Treatment of mycetoma depends on the causative organism and since many organisms, both actinomycetes (actinomycetoma) and fungi (eumycetoma), are capable of producing mycetoma, an accurate diagnosis is crucial. Currently, multiple diagnostic tools are used to determine the extent of infections and to identify the causative agents of mycetoma. These include various imaging, cytological, histopathological, serological, and culture techniques; phenotypic characterisation; and molecular diagnostics. In this review, we summarize these techniques and identify their merits and pitfalls in the identification of the causative agents of mycetoma and the extent of the disease. We also emphasize the fact that there is no ideal diagnostic tool available to identify the causative agents and that future research should focus on the development of new and reliable diagnostic tools.

Actions (login required)

Ver elemento