ACTUALIZACIÓN DE TÉCNICAS DIAGNÓSTICAS EN LEISHMANIASIS

Abstract

Introduction Leishmaniasis is a persistent disease caused by the bite of a sandfly carrying the Leishmania parasite. Clinical manifestations include lesions of the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs. Parasite diagnosis is characterized by direct observation of the parasite by staining methods. Immunological tests determine the patient's humoral response. Molecular tests, such as conventional PCR, identify the subgenome and genome of the parasite by amplification of a specific DNA or RNA sequence. This research provides a set of techniques applicable to the diagnosis of leishmaniasis, with the loopmediated isothermal amplification method (LAMP) being a rapid DNA or RNA sequence amplification test that does not require sophisticated equipment and has a sensitivity and specificity of 100 %. In addition, the efficacy of artificial intelligence using database-driven algorithms to diagnose cutaneous Leishmania was examined. A literature review of scientific articles in databases such as PubMed, SciELO and Elsevier was carried out to perform a descriptive analysis of current and future diagnostic methods in Leishmaniasis.