What is the parasitemia?

parasitemia is a condition in which parasites are present in a human or animal's blood. When evaluating the health condition, the term parasitemia can be used to indicate the number of parasites infecting person or animal. It can also be used to determine the degree to which person or animal suffers from an infection caused by parasites. It can also be critical during treatment evaluation and prognosis. For example, cure of a patient with certain types of parasitic infections requires a decrease in parasitemia to zero level. This is especially true of the chronic phases of parasitic infections.

Often parasitemia is measured using an optical microscope. This type of microscope is often called a light microscope because it uses visible light and lenses to help users see the samples they analyze. The optical microscope allows users to see very small samples. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the technique of molecular biology is sometimes used to analyze parasitemia. PCR includes deoxyribonucleic acid amplification (DNA), whichIt is genetic material, and generating copies of DNA sequences, which are letters used to represent DNA sources. It is commonly used not only in the diagnosis of diseases, including some parasitic infections, but also in genetic research and testing.

Often the parasitemia is discussed in relation to malaria, a disease that spreads by the bite of some mosquitoes. This infection occurs when the infected mosquito bites a person or animal and transmits the parasites of the following species: plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium vivax, plasmodium ovale, and plasmodium malariae . Blood coatings can be used in microscopic analysis and diagnosis of malaria. Strong coatings are considered to be more sensitive parasitema and screening for the presence of malaria parasites, while thin coatings can be good for identifying the species of parasites and to invent the number of parasites present.

Parasitemia using thick and thin blood paint, the doctor writes the patient's skin to get drops of blood. For a thick paint, a drop of blood is laid on the glass. This type is better for parasitemia detection, because the blood analyzed sample is greater than that of thin blood paint and the amount of parasites may be low at the time of testing, requires a larger blood sample. With thin blood, there is a drop of blood around the slide area, allowing laboratory scientists to have easier discovery of the type parasite and the percentage of red blood cells that are infected.