Diagnostic capacity, and predictive values of rapid diagnostic tests for accurate diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum in febrile children in Asante-Akim, Ghana

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Isabella A. Quakyi, George O. Adjei, David J. Sullivan, Amos Laar, Judith K. Stephens, Richmond Owusu, Peter Winch, Kwame S. Sakyi, Nathaniel Coleman, Francis D. Krampa, Edward Essuman, Vivian N. A. Aubyn, Isaac A. Boateng, Bernard B. Borteih, Linda Vanotoo, Juliet Tuakli, Ebenezer Addison, Constance Bart-Plange, Felix Sorvor, Andrew A. Adjei
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2018
• Subjects: Febrile; Children < 5 years; Rapid diagnostic test (RDT); Malaria; HRP2; Combo; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2613-x; https://doaj.org/article/285cfb73fb56455fad23194f8b8399bd

Abstract Background This study seeks to compare the performance of HRP2 (First Response) and pLDH/HRP2 (Combo) RDTs for falciparum malaria against microscopy and PCR in acutely ill febrile children at presentation and follow-up. Methods This is an interventional study that recruited children < 5 years who reported to health facilities with a history of fever within the past 72 h or a documented axillary temperature of 37.5 °C. Using a longitudinal approach, recruitment and follow-up of participants was done between January and May 2012. Based on results of HRP2-RDT screening, the children were grouped into one of the following three categories: (1) tested positive for malaria using RDT and received anti-malarial treatment (group 1, n = 85); (2) tested negative for malaria using RDT and were given anti-malarial treatment by the admitting physician (group 2, n = 74); or, (3) tested negative for malaria using RDT and did not receive any anti-malarial treatment (group 3, n = 101). Independent microscopy, PCR and Combo-RDT tests were done for each sample on day 0 and all follow-up days. Results Mean age of the study participants was 22 months and females accounted for nearly 50%. At the time of diagnosis, the mean body temperature was 37.9 °C (range 35–40.1 °C). Microscopic parasite density ranged between 300 and 99,500 parasites/µL. With microscopy as gold standard, the sensitivity of HRP2 and Combo-RDTs were 95.1 and 96.3%, respectively. The sensitivities, specificities and predictive values for RDTs were relatively higher in microscopy-defined malaria cases than in PCR positive-defined cases. On day 0, participants who initially tested negative for HRP2 were positive by microscopy (n = 2), Combo (n = 1) and PCR (n = 17). On days 1 and 2, five of the children in this group (initially HRP2-negative) tested positive by PCR alone. On day 28, four patients who were originally HRP2-negative tested positive for microscopy (n = 2), Combo (n = 2) and PCR (n = 4). Conclusion The HRP2/pLDH RDTs showed comparable ...