Direct stool examination is the gold standard technique for diagnosing intestinal parasitic infection.
Stool examination by stained smear, concentration techniques and sometimes culture are the
commonly used. The sensitivity of direct smear is low and requires repeated smears. Formalinethyl
acetate concentration method is more sensitive, but time consuming. Midi-Parasep® concentrator
is a new diagnostic tool used as a routine stool examination for intestinal parasitic infections
worldwide. There's a lack of reports which evaluate the efficacy of Midi-Parasep® procedure
in areas of limited diagnostic facilities and poor resource settings. Therefore, our current
study represents the first report that assessed the Midi-Parasep® technique by comparing its performance
to other economic standard measures like modified Ridley-Allen and formol detergent
concentration techniques for detection of intestinal parasites in human stool samples. We examined
306 fecal samples using Midi-Parasep fecal parasite concentrator, modified Ridley-Allen
concentration and formol detergent concentration techniques. The best over-all sensitivity
(71.7%) was obtained for Midi-Parasep technique followed by formol detergent concentration
(66.7%) then modified Ridley-Allen technique (51.7%). Regarding, helminths parasites, the most
sensitive was formol detergent concentration technique (70%), followed by the Midi-Parasep < br />technique (60%), and Modified Ridley-Allen technique (33.3%). Referring to the intestinal protozoa,
midi-Parasep technique had the highest sensitivity (83.3%), followed by modified Ridley-
Allen procedure (70%) then formol detergent concentration technique (63.3%).