Rapid Diagnostic Test Cassette: A Source of DNA for Malaria Diagnosis by PCR and a Quality Control Tool for the Test Performance

RDT is a malaria diagnostic tool used for early diagnosis of the disease. Though reliable, their challenging performance demands for continuous quality control monitoring. In this study, we evaluated the use of RDT cassette as a source of DNA to detect malaria parasite by PCR and in quality control of RDT in malaria diagnosis. Malaria parasite DNA was extracted from both immediately used (“fresh†) and archived RDT cassettes and was amplified by PCR for msp 1, msp 2 and glurp gene and the test performance of RDT was evaluated comparing PCR results for msp 2 with those of microscopy and RDT. Findings from this study showed RDT as a source of malaria parasite DNA as DNA was successful extracted from RDT cassettes and amplified by PCR. Comparing PCR, microscopy and RDT results showed PCR to be most reliable in detecting malaria parasite. It was confirmed that RDT cassette is a potential cost effective source of DNA in molecular epidemiology studies to detect malaria parasite by PCR and in quality control of malaria diagnostic test performance.