Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2012 Aug;87(2):223-230. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2012.11-0685.
Malaria remains a serious disease in the developing world. There is a growing consensus that new diagnostics are needed in low-resource settings. The ideal malaria diagnostic should be able to speciate; measure parasitemia; low-cost, quick, and simple to use; and capable of detecting low-level infections. A promising development are nucleic acid tests (NATs) for the diagnosis of malaria, which are well suited for point-of-care use because of their ability to detect low-level infections and speciate, and because they have high sensitivity and specificity. The greatest barrier to NAT use in the past has been its relatively high cost, and the amount of infrastructure required in the form of equipment, stable power, and reagent storage. This review describes recent developments to decrease the cost and run time, and increase the ease of use of NAT while maintaining their high sensitivity and specificity and low limit of detection at the point-of-care.
疟疾在发展中国家仍然是一种严重的疾病。越来越多的人认为，在资源匮乏的环境中需要新的诊断方法。理想的疟疾诊断方法应该能够鉴定物种；测量寄生虫血症；成本低、快速、简单易用；并且能够检测低水平感染。核酸检测（NAT）是诊断疟疾的一种很有前途的方法，由于其能够检测低水平感染和鉴定物种，以及具有高灵敏度和特异性，因此非常适合在护理点使用。过去，NAT 应用的最大障碍是其相对较高的成本，以及在设备、稳定电源和试剂储存等方面所需的基础设施数量。本综述描述了最近在降低成本和运行时间、提高护理点易用性的同时，保持其高灵敏度和特异性以及低检测限的最新进展。
