Flow cytometry can be used to identify and quantify malaria parasites in the peripheral blood. This is particularly useful when the number of parasites is low.
Patient selection: malaria present or suspected
Peripheral blood is collected in a solution that lysis red blood cells and fixes the residua with formaldehyde.
The residua can be stained with a fluorescent dye that binds to DNA (Hoechst 33258). Other methods may be used, such as tagged antibodies to malaria.
The specimen is then passed through the flow cytometer which then measures:
(1) number of white blood cells
(2) number of malaria parasites
If the peripheral white blood cell count is known, then the number of parasites can be calculated based on the ratio of parasites to white blood cells in the flow cytometry counts.
number of parasites =
= (white blood cell count) * (flow count of parasites) / (flow count of WBC)
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