Comparison of Traditional Methods and PCR for Diagnosis of Cutaneous

Background: the usual method for laboratory diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis was the direct observation of parasites under a light microscope. although this method has high specificity, it has low sensitivity. the purpose of this study is to compare three methods of direct observation, culture and mini-exon-pcr to diagnose cutaneous leishmaniasis in khuzestan province. this study intends to compare sensitivity of pcr approach with sensitivity of the existing traditional methods to diagnose cutaneous leishmaniasis using mini-exon gene.materials and methods: a total 216 skin biopsies prepared from patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis were studied though direct method, culture in nnn, culture in rpmi 1640 and mini-exon-pcr and the sensitivity of these methods were compared with each other. in this study mini-exon-pcr was considered as the gold standard method.results: results showed that 46.7% with direct method, 35.1% with culture method in rpmi 1640, 57.8% with culture method in nnn and 70.3% with pcr were positive. sensitivity was obtained 66.4% for microscopic observation, 50% for culture in rpmi1640, and 82.2% for culture in nnn and 100% for pcr.conclusion: this study showed that pcr on samples stored in normal saline has higher sensitivity and specificity than other traditional methods (p > 0.05). thus, mini-exon-pcr on samples in normal saline is a reliable method to diagnose cutaneous leishmaniasis, especially in cases where the diagnosis is negative with the other methods.