Use of modified Grace's insect medium for the primary isolation of Leishmania donovani donovani in Bihar, India.

Grace's insect medium, supplemented with 20% (v/v) heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS) and 15% defibrinated pooled rabbit blood is statistically shown to be more sensitive than modified NNN medium (P less than 0.05), Grace's insect medium with 20% (v/v) and Grace's insect medium with 30% (v/v) FBS (P less than 0.01) for in vitro primary isolation of promastigotes of Leishmania donovani donovani from cultures of bone marrow aspirates. This medium has been found to be especially useful for parasitological diagnosis of untreated cases of visceral leishmaniasis and for cases where microscopic examination of bone marrow aspirates has been negative for Leishman-Donovan bodies.