Comparative evaluation of lateral flow assays to diagnose chronic < i > Trypanosoma cruzi < /i > infection in Bolivia

by Ronald L ópez, Andrea García, José Jorge Chura Aruni, Victor Balboa, Andrea Rodríguez, Berra Erkosar, Aurélie Kamoun, Marcelo Rodriguez, Evelin Fortun, Laura C. Bohorquez Bolivia has the highest incidence of Chagas disease (CD) worldwide. Caused by the parasiteTrypanasoma cruzi, CD is generally a chronic condition. Diagnosis is logistically and financially challenging, requiring at least two different laboratory-based serological tests. Many CD cases are missed; in Bolivia it is estimated just 6% of individuals chronically infected withT.cruzi get diagnosed. Achieving control on the way to elimination of CD requires a radical simplification of the current CD testing pathways, to overcome the barriers to accessing CD treatment. We aimed to generate unbiased performance data of lateral flow assays (LFAs) forT.cruzi infection in Bolivia, to evaluate their usefulness for improvingT.cruzi diagnosis rates in a precise and efficient manner. This retrospective, laboratory-based, diagnostic evaluation study sought to estimate the sensitivity/specificity of 10 commercially available LFAs forT.cruzi, using the current CD diagnostic algorithm employed in Bolivia as the reference test method. All tests were blinded at the study site and performed by three operators. In total, 470 serum samples were tested, including 221 and 249 characterized as CD-positive/-negative, respectively. The LFAs were scored according to their relative importance using a decision-tree-based algorithm, w...
Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Source Type: research