Volume 25, Number 2—February 2019
Research
Oasis Malaria, Northern Mauritania1
Table 3
Performance of rapid diagnostic testing and microscopic examination in establishing malaria diagnosis in 453 febrile patients, using PCR as reference standard, Atar, northern Mauritania, 2015–2016*
| Performance | % (95% CI)† |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid diagnostic test |
Microscopic examination |
||||||
| Pv | Pf | Pv–Pf | Pv | Pf | Pv–Pf | ||
| Sensitivity | 63.3 (55.3–70.8) | 28.6 (15.7–44.6) | 66.0 (58.2–73.3) | 82.9 (76.1–88.4) | 4.8 (0.6–16.2) | 91.4 (85.9–95.2) | |
| Specificity | 99.3 (97.6–99.9) | 99.0 (97.5–99.7) | 99.7 (98.1–99.9) | 96.9 (94.3–98.6) | 99.5 (98.3–99.9) | 97.9 (95.6–99.2) | |
| PPV | 98.0 (92.6–99.5) | 75.0 (50.3–89.9) | 99.1 (93.8–99.9) | 93.6 (88.4–96.5) | 50.0 (12.6–87.4) | 96.1 (91.8–98.2) | |
| NPV | 83.5 (80.4–86.1) | 93.1 (91.8–94.3) | 84.1 (81.0–86.7) | 91.4 (88.2–93.7) | 91.1 (90.5–91.6) | 95.3 (92.5–97.1) | |
| Accuracy | 86.8 (83.3–89.7) | 92.5 (89.7–94.7) | 87.6 (84.2–90.5) | 92.1 (89.2–94.4) | 90.7 (87.7–93.2) | 95.6 (93.3–97.3) | |
*NPV, negative predictive value; Pf, pure P. falciparum plus mixed P. falciparum–P. vivax; PPV, positive predictive value; Pv, pure P. vivax plus mixed P. falciparum–P. vivax; Pv–Pf, pure P. vivax plus pure P. falciparum plus mixed P. falciparum–P. vivax.
†Percentages of PCR-positive patients (i.e., the percentage of positives for different Plasmodium spp. among included patients [n = 435]), were as follows: 34.9% (95% CI 30.5%–39.5%) for pure P. vivax; 9.3% (95% CI 6.8%–12.3%) for pure P. falciparum; and 35.8% (95% CI 31.3%–40.4%) for P. vivax–P. falciparum mixed infections. PCR showed that none of the samples had P. ovale or P. malariae.
1Preliminary results of this study were presented at the 7th Multilateral Initiative for Malaria (MIM) Pan African Malaria Conference, April 15–20, 2018, Dakar, Senegal.