Are rapid diagnostic tests more accurate in diagnosis of plasmodium falciparum malaria compared to microscopy at rural health centres?
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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Malaria journal
Abstract
Prompt, accurate diagnosis and treatment with artemisinin combination therapy remains vital to
current malaria control. Blood film microscopy the current standard test for diagnosis of malaria has several
limitations that necessitate field evaluation of alternative diagnostic methods especially in low income countries of
sub-Saharan Africa where malaria is endemic.
The accuracy of axillary temperature, health centre (HC) microscopy, expert microscopy and a HRP2-
based rapid diagnostic test (Paracheck) was compared in predicting malaria infection using polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) as the gold standard. Three hundred patients with a clinical suspicion of malaria based on fever and
or history of fever from a low and high transmission setting in Uganda were consecutively enrolled and provided
blood samples for all tests. Accuracy of each test was calculated overall with 95% confidence interval and then
adjusted for age-groups and level of transmission intensity using a stratified analysis. The endpoints were:
sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV). This study is registered
with Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00565071.
Description
Keywords
Polymerase Chain Reaction Malaria Positive Predictive Value Negative Predictive Value Malaria Infection
Citation
Batwala, V., Magnussen, P., & Nuwaha, F. (2010). Are rapid diagnostic tests more accurate in diagnosis of plasmodium falciparum malaria compared to microscopy at rural health centres?. Malaria journal, 9(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-9-349