Utility of an Automatic Vision-Based Examination System (AVE-562) for the Detection of Clonorchis sinensis Eggs in Stool

Abstract

Stool examination is the gold standard for the detection of intestinal parasites. We assessed the performance of a newly developed AVE-562 analyzer (AVE Science & Technology Co., Hunan, China) for the vision-based detection of eggs of Clonorchis sinensis-the most common intestinal parasite in Korea-in stool samples. In total, 30 stool samples with a high or low egg count or without eggs (as negative control samples) (N=10 each) were prepared and analyzed. The performance of the AVE-562 analyzer was compared with that of the formalin-ether concentration (FEC) method. The overall correct identification rate of the AVE-562 analyzer based on FEC results was 66.6%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the AVE-562 analyzer for detecting C. sinensis eggs were 36.4%, 100.0%, 100.0%, and 73.1%, respectively. The average time required to run five tests simultaneously was 27 min using the AVE-562 analyzer and 58 min using the FEC method. Although the AVE-562 analyzer enables rapid and convenient stool examination, its sensitivity needs to be improved, particularly considering the prevalence of low-burden C. sinensis infection in Korea.

Keywords: AVE-562 analyzer; Clonorchis sinensis; Eggs; Parasite; Performance.

Fig. 1

Average procedure times for the two methods as a function of the number of samples analyzed simultaneously. The average times required to run one, five, and 10 tests at a time were 8, 27, and 51 minutes, respectively, for the AVE-562 analyzer and 43, 58, and 66 minutes, respectively, for the FEC method. The AVE-562 analyzer showed a significantly shorter total procedure time than the FEC method (P = 0.01 for one test, P = 0.0131 for five tests, P = 0.0275 for ten tests, respectively). Abbreviation: FEC, formalin-ether concentration.