Table 2. Comparison of nPCR, microscopy, and LAMP for the Plasmodium genus detection and species identification*.

Parasite(s) detected by each method (no. of samples) †
nested PCR	Microscopy	LAMP
genus Plasmodium(117)	genus Plasmodium(118)	genus Plasmodium (116)
		negative (1)
P. falciparum(77)	P. falciparum(72)	P. falciparum (69)
		negative (4)
	P. vivax (5)‡	P. falciparum (4)
negative (15) ¶ negative (18)°	negative(15)	negative(15) negative (18)

*n PCR=nested polymerase chain reaction; LAMP = Loop-mediated isothermal amplification. † Each row shows results obtained from identical blood samples. Microscopy + LAMP results that were not concordant are shown in bold. ‡ Four of these samples were not detected due to mixed infections. ¶ Samples of patients with fever of unknown origin. Samples provided by the blood bank