In vitro study of drug sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum: evaluation of a new semi-micro test.

A modification of Rieckmann's microtechnique was used to determine the drug sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum. The technique was found to be reliable and adequately sensitive with either blood from a malarial patient or strains of P. falciparum from in vitro continuous culture, with a success rate of 50%. Minor variations in the method had little influence on the results. Inhibition of maturation of parasites was compared with the inhibition of increase in parasitemia.