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Updated: Sep 23, 2026

Comparative Analysis of Automatic Fecal Analyzer versus Direct Wet Smear Microscopy for Detecting Parasitic Infections in Stool Samples
Published on: April 25, 2025
Thick stool smear wet mount examination: a new approach in stool microscopy
Subhash Chandra Parija1, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Prasant Padhan
1Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Pondicherry 605 006, India. parijasc@vsnl.com
Abstract:
Microscopic examination of a wet mount of the stool has been the standard practice for the laboratory diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections. Here we describe a novel method of stool microscopy of 80 stool samples, 31 (38.75%) were positive by the new thick stool smear wet mount method, whereas the corresponding figure for the conventional method using lacto-phenol cotton blue was 16 (20%). The difference was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.04 by McNemar's test). The thick stool smear wet mount procedure promises to be superior to the direct wet mount method in the detection of the intestinal parasites.
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