Comparison of Eight Commercially Available Faecal Point-of-Care Tests for Detection of Canine Parvovirus Antigen

A real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is considered the gold standard for the laboratory diagnosis of canine parvovirus (CPV) infection but can only be performed in specialized laboratories. Several point-of-care tests (POCT), detecting CPV antigens in faeces within minutes, are commercially available. The aim of this study was to evaluate eight POCT in comparison with qPCR. Faecal samples of 150 dogs from three groups (H: 50 client-owned, healthy dogs, not vaccinated within the last four weeks; S: 50 shelter dogs, healthy, not vaccinated within the last four weeks; p = 50 dogs with clinical signs of CPV infection) were tested with eight POCT and qPCR. Practicability, sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV), as well as overall accuracy were determined. To assess the differences between and agreement among POCT, McNemar’s test and Cohen’s Kappa statistic were performed. Specificity and PPV were 100.0% in all POCT. Sensitivity varied from 22.9–34.3% overall and from 32.7–49.0% in group P. VetexpertRapidTestCPVAg® had the highest sensitivity (34.3% overall, 49.0% group P) and differed significantly from the 3 POCT with the lowest sensitivities (Fassisi®Parvo (27.7% overall, 36.7% group P), Primagnost®ParvoH+K (24.3% overall, 34.7% group P), FASTest®PARVOCard (22.9% overall, 32.7% group P)). The agreement among all POCT was at least substantial (kappa >0.80). A positive POCT result confirmed the infection with CPV in unvaccinated dogs, whereas a negative POCT result did not definitely exclude CPV infection due to the low sensitivity of all POCT.

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P084: Substituting capillary blood for urine in point-of-care pregnancy tests

CJEM ◽

10.1017/cem.2018.282 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (S1) ◽

pp. S86-S86

Author(s):

M. Lafleche ◽

A. Parent ◽

E. Katherine Conrad ◽

A. Bignucolo

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

Abdominal Pain ◽

Vaginal Bleeding ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Capillary Blood ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Capillary Blood Sample ◽

Patient Will ◽

Sensitivity Specificity ◽

Point Of Care Tests

Introduction: When a female presents with abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, a positive b-hcg level helps in the diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy. A timely diagnosis as well as management is required for these cases. In many emergency departments, there can be delays in laboratory processing of quantitative b-hcg levels as well as qualitative urine pregnancy tests. In others, especially in rural hospitals in Canada, the laboratory closes at night and these tests cannot be processed until the morning. This may also help decrease length of stay for some patients in the emergency department. There are currently new point-of-care b-hcg tests on the market using capillary blood, but these are expensive and not readily available. The purpose of the study is to validate the most inexpensive point of care urine pregnancy tests readily available on the market for use with capillary blood samples. These point-of-care tests have only been studied with urine and whole blood. If validated with capillary blood, it would allow for a very practical, rapid, and inexpensive test which could help doctors and nurses to triage patients in a timely and more efficient fashion. Methods: In our emergency department, 385 patients between the ages of 18-50 with possible pregnancy, abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding will be included in the study. A capillary blood sample will be taken and applied to a cassette point-of-care pregnancy test with four drops of saline. Two independent investigators will assess the test. The results will be compared to a quantitative serum hCG assay and urine. If these tests are not done as part of the patients medical care, the patient will be contacted one month after to enquire if the patient is pregnant or not. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values will be calculated. Results: Data colleciton will begin in January 2018. Conclusion: No conclusions can yet be drawn.

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Comparison of Four Commercially Available Point-of-Care Tests to Detect Antibodies against Canine Parvovirus in Dogs

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v13010018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Michèle Bergmann ◽

Mike Holzheu ◽

Yury Zablotski ◽

Stephanie Speck ◽

Uwe Truyen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Test Performance ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Reference Method ◽

Canine Parvovirus ◽

P Value ◽

Important Indicator ◽

Specificity And Sensitivity ◽

Specific Pathogen ◽

The One ◽

Point Of Care Tests

Measuring antibodies to evaluate dogs´ immunity against canine parvovirus (CPV) is useful to avoid unnecessary re-vaccinations. The study aimed to evaluate the quality and practicability of four point-of-care (POC) tests for detection of anti-CPV antibodies. The sera of 198 client-owned and 43 specific pathogen-free (SPF) dogs were included; virus neutralization was the reference method. Specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive value (PPV and NPV), and overall accuracy (OA) were calculated. Specificity was considered to be the most important indicator for POC test performance. Differences between specificity and sensitivity of POC tests in the sera of all dogs were determined by McNemar, agreement by Cohen´s kappa. Prevalence of anti-CPV antibodies in all dogs was 80% (192/241); in the subgroup of client-owned dogs, it was 97% (192/198); and in the subgroup of SPF dogs, it was 0% (0/43). FASTest® and CanTiCheck® were easiest to perform. Specificity was highest in the CanTiCheck® (overall dogs, 98%; client-owned dogs, 83%; SPF dogs, 100%) and the TiterCHEK® (overall dogs, 96%; client-owned dogs, 67%; SPF dogs, 100%); no significant differences in specificity were observed between the ImmunoComb®, the TiterCHEK®, and the CanTiCheck®. Sensitivity was highest in the FASTest® (overall dogs, 95%; client-owned dogs, 95%) and the CanTiCheck® (overall dogs, 80%; client-owned dogs, 80%); sensitivity of the FASTest® was significantly higher compared to the one of the other three tests (McNemars p-value in each comparison: <0.001). CanTiCheck® would be the POC test of choice when considering specificity and practicability. However, differences in the number of false positive results between CanTiCheck®, TiterCHEK®, and ImmunoComb® were minimal.

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COVID-19 Seroprevalence among Healthcare Workers of a Large COVID-19 Hospital in Rome Reveals Strengths and Limits of Two Different Serological Tests

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18052650 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 2650

Author(s):

Giuseppe Vetrugno ◽

Daniele Ignazio La Milia ◽

Floriana D’Ambrosio ◽

Marcello Di Pumpo ◽

Roberta Pastorino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Blood Test ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Venous Blood ◽

Administrative Staff ◽

Serological Tests ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Work From Home ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

Healthcare workers are at the forefront against COVID-19, worldwide. Since Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli (FPG) IRCCS was enlisted as a COVID-19 hospital, the healthcare workers deployed to COVID-19 wards were separated from those with limited/no exposure, whereas the administrative staff were designated to work from home. Between 4 June and 3 July 2020, an investigation was conducted to evaluate the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies among the employees of the FPG using point-of-care (POC) and venous blood tests. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were determined with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction on nasal/oropharyngeal swabs as the diagnostic gold standard. The participants enrolled amounted to 4777. Seroprevalence was 3.66% using the POC test and 1.19% using the venous blood test, with a significant difference (p < 0.05). The POC test sensitivity and specificity were, respectively, 63.64% (95% confidence interval (CI): 62.20% to 65.04%) and 96.64% (95% CI: 96.05% to 97.13%), while those of the venous blood test were, respectively, 78.79% (95% CI: 77.58% to 79.94%) and 99.36% (95% CI: 99.07% to 99.55%). Among the low-risk populations, the POC test’s predictive values were 58.33% (positive) and 98.23% (negative), whereas those of the venous blood test were 92.86% (positive) and 98.53% (negative). According to our study, these serological tests cannot be a valid alternative to diagnose COVID-19 infection in progress.

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Validity of hearTest Smartphone-Based Audiometry for Hearing Screening in Workers Exposed to Noise

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1718931 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Luma Cordeiro Rodrigues ◽

Silvia Ferrite ◽

Ana Paula Corona

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

High Specificity ◽

Hearing Screening ◽

Youden Index ◽

Hearing Level ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Auditory Thresholds ◽

The Mean ◽

Low Sensitivity ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

Abstract Purpose This article investigates the validity of a smartphone-based audiometry for hearing screening to identify hearing loss in workers exposed to noise. Research Design This is a validation study comparing hearing screening with the hearTest to conventional audiometry. The study population included all workers who attended the Brazilian Social Service of Industry to undergo periodic examinations. Sensitivity, specificity, the Youden index, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) for hearing screening obtained by the hearTest were estimated according to three definitions of hearing loss: any threshold greater than 25 dB hearing level (HL), the mean auditory thresholds for 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz greater than 25 dB HL, and the mean thresholds for 3, 4, and 6 kHz greater than 25 dB HL. Note that 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all measurements. Results A total of 232 workers participated in the study. Hearing screening with the hearTest presented good sensitivity (93.8%), specificity (83.9%), and Youden index (77.7%) values, a NPV (97.2%), and a low PPV (69.0%) for the identification of hearing loss defined as any auditory threshold greater than 25 dB HL. For the other definitions of hearing loss, we observed high specificity, PPV and NPV, as well as low sensitivity and Youden index. Conclusion The hearTest is an accurate hearing screening tool to identify hearing loss in workers exposed to noise, including those with noise-induced hearing loss, although it does not replace conventional audiometry.

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Secondary Analysis of an Electronic Surveillance System Combined with Multi-focal Interventions for Early Detection of Sepsis

Applied Clinical Informatics ◽

10.4338/aci-2016-07-ra-0112 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (01) ◽

pp. 47-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Bonnie Westra ◽

Sean Landman ◽

Pranjul Yadav ◽

Michael Steinbach

Keyword(s):

Early Detection ◽

Surveillance System ◽

Point Of Care ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Length Of Hospital Stay ◽

Separate Analysis ◽

Electronic Surveillance ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

SummarySummary: To conduct an independent secondary analysis of a multi-focal intervention for early detection of sepsis that included implementation of change management strategies, electronic surveil-lance for sepsis, and evidence based point of care alerting using the POC AdvisorTM application. Methods: Propensity score matching was used to select subsets of the cohorts with balanced covariates. Bootstrapping was performed to build distributions of the measured difference in rates/ means. The effect of the sepsis intervention was evaluated for all patients, and High and Low Risk subgroups for illness severity. A separate analysis was performed patients on the intervention and non-intervention units (without the electronic surveillance). Sensitivity, specificity, and the positive predictive values were calculated to evaluate the accuracy of the alerting system for detecting sepsis or severe sepsis/ septic shock.Results: There was positive effect on the intervention units with sepsis electronic surveillance with an adjusted mortality rate of –6.6%. Mortality rates for non-intervention units also improved, but at a lower rate of –2.9%. Additional outcomes improved for patients on both intervention and non-intervention units for home discharge (7.5% vs 1.1%), total length of hospital stay (-0.9% vs –0.3%), and 30 day readmissions (-6.6% vs –1.6%). Patients on the intervention units showed better outcomes compared with non-intervention unit patients, and even more so for High Risk patients. The sensitivity was 95.2%, specificity of 82.0% and PPV of 50.6% for the electronic surveillance alerts. Conclusion: There was improvement over time across the hospital for patients on the intervention and non-intervention units with more improvement for sicker patients. Patients on intervention units with electronic surveillance have better outcomes; however, due to differences in exclusion criteria and types of units, further study is needed to draw a direct relationship between the electronic surveillance system and outcomes.

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Evaluation of WHO criteria to determine degree of dehydration in children with acute diarrhea

Paediatrica Indonesiana ◽

10.14238/pi45.2.2005.76-80 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Suprawita Sari ◽

Supriatmo Supriatmo ◽

S L Margaretha ◽

S Nafianti ◽

B Hasibuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Acute Diarrhea ◽

Clinical Signs ◽

Severe Dehydration ◽

Chi Square ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Who Criteria ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Kappa Value ◽

The Difference ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and agreementbetween the 1980 and 1990 WHO criteria for determining the de-gree of dehydration in children with acute diarrhea.Methods This prospective study was conducted in two hospitalsfrom October 2002 to February 2003. Clinical signs of dehydrationall patients were recorded. The degree of dehydration based onthe 1980 and 1990 WHO criteria was determined and comparedwith fluid deficit measured by the difference of body weight on ad-mission and on discharge. Chi-square test and kappa value analy-ses were performed. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, andaccuracy of each WHO criteria were assessed. The prevalence ofdehydration was also determined.Results Sixty-five patients, comprising 40 boys and 25 girls, werestudied. There was a significant difference between the two WHOcriteria in differentiating between dehydration and non-dehydra-tion (P<0.05). Based on the 1980 WHO criteria the prevalence ofdehydration was 62.2%. Its sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy indiagnosing dehydration were 100.0%, 55.5%, and 86.2%, respec-tively. Based on the 1990 WHO criteria, the prevalence of dehy-dration was 60.0%. Its sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in diag-nosing dehydration were 94.9%, 46.1%, and 75.4%, respectively.There was also a significant difference between both criteria indetermining severe dehydration (P<0.05). Based on the 1980 cri-teria, the prevalence of severe dehydration was 15.4%. Its sensi-tivity, specificity, and accuracy in diagnosing severe dehydrationwere 30.0%, 94.5%, and 84.6%, respectively. Based on the 1990criteria, these results were 40.0%, 94.5%, and 86.2%, respectively.The prevalence was 15.4%. Kappa value comparing the two WHOcriteria was 0.852 in diagnosing dehydration and 0.915 in diag-nosing severe dehydration. There was no significant differencebetween the two criteria in their sensitivity and specificity (P>0.05).Conclusion Both WHO criteria can be applied to determine de-hydration in patients with acute diarrhea, although we feel that the1990 criteria is simpler

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Low sensitivity of ParaHIT-f rapid malaria test among patients with fever in rural health centers, Northern Tanzania

The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries ◽

10.3855/jidc.1346 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 5 (03) ◽

pp. 204-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Eliningaya John Kweka ◽

Asanterabi Lowassa ◽

Shandala Msangi ◽

Epiphania E Kimaro ◽

Ester E Lyatuu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rapid Test ◽

Health Centers ◽

Diagnostic Tools ◽

Test Results ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Rural Tanzania ◽

Northern Tanzania ◽

Low Sensitivity ◽

Sensitivity Specificity ◽

Malaria Test

Introduction: Several rapid diagnostic tools for malaria are currently available in local markets. However, diagnostic accuracy varies widely. The present study was conducted to evaluate a cheaply and easily available rapid diagnostic malaria test (ParaHIT-f) in rural Tanzania. Methodology: Participants presenting with fever at health centers in the Kilimanjaro and Manyara regions were eligible. Parasitological thin and thick smears were examined from finger-prick blood samples and compared to ParaHIT-f test results. Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated using microscopic parasitological examination as the gold standard. Results: In total, 236/743 (31.8%) individuals had a positive malaria microscopy, and 25/715 (3.4%) were positive in the rapid diagnostic test. The sensitivity of ParaHIT-f was 10.7% (95% CI, 6.7-14.7) and specificity was 100% (95% CI, 97.4-102), with positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) of 100% (95% CI, 99.1-100.2) and 70.9% (95% CI, 66.9-74.9) respectively. Sensitivity of ParaHIT-f increased with increasing P. falciparum density (P > 0.003) from 5.8% (95% CI, 0-12.9) at < 100 parasites/μl to 20.5% (95% CI, 13.5-27) at ≥ 100 parasites/μl. Conclusions: Sensitivity of the ParaHIT-f rapid test was very low in this setting, therefore concomitant use of rapid diagnostic tests and microscopy is recommended. In the case of positive test results, confirmation by parasitological techniques is not necessary. Further monitoring of ParaHIT-f in various epidemiological settings in Tanzania is warranted.

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Epidemiology and molecular diagnosis of canine coronavirus in Egypt: evaluation of different tests used for its diagnosis

BULGARIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE ◽

10.15547/bjvm.2019-0024 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 467-477

Author(s):

R. Awad ◽

S. Ali Hassan ◽

A. Attallah ◽

W. Khalil

Keyword(s):

Clinical Signs ◽

Conventional Polymerase Chain Reaction ◽

Pcr Analysis ◽

Conventional Pcr ◽

Predictive Values ◽

S Protein ◽

Qrt Pcr ◽

Canine Coronavirus ◽

Pcr Products ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

This work aimed to study the epidemiology and molecular detection of existing canine coronavirus (CCoV) strain circulating in Egypt. A total number of 86 dogs with clinical signs suggestive for CCoV infection was subjected to clinical examination and quick immunochromatography (IC) on faecal swabs to detect viral antigen. To identify CCoV viral RNA and S protein gene in blood and faeces, conventional PCR and quantitative RT-PCR were used. All examined dogs showed clinical signs suggestive of CCoV infection. Only 32 out of 86 dogs were positive for IC. Of all samples, 36 showed positive results in PCR and the amplification products from these 36 samples were confirmed as CCoV-S protein partial gene by the analysis of nucleotide sequence. However, the qRT-PCR analysis detected 45 positive samples e.g. more than those of IC or conventional polymerase chain reaction. Statistical evaluation of IC and conventional PCR to the results of qRT-PCR performance showed sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values of 71%, 100%, 84.9%, 100%, 75.9% for IC and 80%, 100%, 89.5%, 100%, 82% for PCR, respectively. Sex and age had no effects on IC and PCR results. The prevalence of CCoV infection among the population of this study was 52.3%. Sequence analysis results proved that CCoV strain 59/08 was the strain, circulating in Egypt among dog populations. PCR products of the CCoV cDNA were closely identical to published CCoV-S partial gene. The NCBI Genbank accession number of sequence of the studied gene (CCoV-S partial gene) in this study was KY655745.

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Reliability of Geneological Cemetery Records in Ascertaining Vital Status in an Historical Cohort Study

International Journal for Population Data Science ◽

10.23889/ijpds.v1i1.244 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Stella Gwini ◽

Ewan MacFarlane ◽

Geza Benke ◽

Malcolm Sim

Keyword(s):

Cohort Study ◽

18Th Century ◽

Historical Cohort ◽

Predictive Values ◽

Vital Status ◽

The Past ◽

Potential Source ◽

Death Registry ◽

Low Sensitivity ◽

Sensitivity Specificity

ABSTRACTBackground Ascertainment of vital status is a particular challenge in studies of historical cohorts, particularly when the time last known to be alive precedes available and linkable death databases. In Australia, vital status is typically ascertained by linkage to the National Death Index (NDI) which contains detailed information on all deaths occurring after 1 January 1980. While the Australian National Death registry has electronic records dating back to the 18th century searching for deaths prior to this date can only be undertaken on an individual basis by requesting specific death certificates from state/territory registrars of births, deaths and marriages, which is unfeasible for a whole cohort. In the past decade, a number of publically accessible online genealogical databases containing either details of burials/cremations or tombstone inscriptions have become available. While genealogical cemetery records are a potential source of mortality ascertainment, their reliability for this purpose is unknown. We used the Australian NDI, as a gold standard, to assess the reliability of electronic cemetery records in ascertaining vital status in a cohort study. MethodsIn a historical cohort of former workers employed at a Tasmanian cement factory from 1936, Tasmanian electronic cemetery and tombstone inscription databases were checked for ‘fact of death’ for workers last known to be alive after 01 January 1980 (N=867, 31% of the cohort). The same cohort was also linked to the NDI. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) of cemetery records were calculated. ResultsThe NDI identified 78 deaths (9%) while we identified 50 deaths (6%) through cemetery record checks. The sensitivity of cemetery matching was low (53.8%; 95% CI 42.2-65.2) while specificity was 99.0% (95% CI 98.0-99.6). Positive and negative predictive values were also good, 84.0% (95% CI 70.9-92.8) and 95.6% (95% CI 94.0-96.9), respectively. ConclusionsThe results show that deaths identified from electronic cemetery records can be reliable (i.e. high PPV), even though this method correctly identified about half of deaths (i.e. low sensitivity). This methodology can be useful when sources of vital status ascertainment are limited.

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Diagnostic Challenges in Canine Parvovirus 2c in Vaccine Failure Cases

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v12090980 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (9) ◽

pp. 980 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hiu Ying Esther Yip ◽

Anne Peaston ◽

Lucy Woolford ◽

Shiow Jing Khuu ◽

Georgia Wallace ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Diagnostic Tests ◽

Clinical Signs ◽

Canine Parvovirus ◽

Vaccination Status ◽

Negative Results ◽

Faecal Samples ◽

Healthy Dogs ◽

Antigen Tests ◽

Low Sensitivity ◽

Apparently Healthy

In this study, three different diagnostic tests for parvovirus were compared with vaccination status and parvovirus genotype in suspected canine parvovirus cases. Faecal samples from vaccinated (N17) and unvaccinated or unknown vaccination status (N41) dogs that had clinical signs of parvovirus infection were tested using three different assays of antigen tests, conventional and quantitative PCR tests. The genotype of each sample was determined by sequencing. In addition to the suspected parvovirus samples, 21 faecal samples from apparently healthy dogs were tested in three diagnostic tests to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the tests. The antigen test was positive in 41.2% of vaccinated dogs and 73.2% of unvaccinated diseased dogs. Conventional PCR and qPCR were positive for canine parvovirus (CPV) in 82.4% of vaccinated dogs and 92.7% of unvaccinated dogs. CPV type-2c (CPV-2c) was detected in 82.75% of dogs (12 vaccinated and 36 unvaccinated dogs), CPV-2b was detected in 5.17% dogs (one vaccinated and two unvaccinated) and CPV-2a in 1.72% vaccinated dog. Mean Ct values in qPCR for vaccinated dogs were higher than the unvaccinated dogs (p = 0.049), suggesting that vaccinated dogs shed less virus, even in clinical forms of CPV. CPV-2c was the dominant subtype infecting dogs in both vaccinated and unvaccinated cases. Faecal antigen testing failed to identify a substantial proportion of CPV-2c infected dogs, likely due to low sensitivity. The faecal samples from apparently healthy dogs (n = 21) showed negative results in all three tests. Negative CPV faecal antigen results should be viewed with caution until they are confirmed by molecular methods.

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