title: Predicting human immunodeficiency virus type 1-positive sera by using two enzyme immunoassay kits in a parallel testing format.
abstract: Two algorithms for screening sera for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 were compared for their efficiency in identifying a true-positive sample in a population with heterogeneous risk factors, using the criteria of specificity and positive predictive value (PPV). In the first algorithm, all sera were screened by using a single enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit, and a specificity of 98.6% and a PPV of 69.3% was calculated for true-positive sera. The second algorithm employed two different EIA kits in parallel to screen each sample. In the first instance, a specificity and a PPV of 100% was calculated if a positive sample was defined as reactive by both EIA kits; in the second, a specificity of 99.97% and a PPV of 99.4% was obtained if this criterion was extended to include a combination of one reactive and one equivocal result obtained with the two EIA kits.
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory of Public Health for Southern Alberta, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Anand
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D015483:HIV Antibodies