title: Evaluation of a single Widal test in the diagnosis of enteric fever.
abstract: The usefulness of a single Widal test was evaluated in an endemic area. This test was done on 62 bacteriologically proven enteric fever cases, 69 non-enteric fever cases and healthy individuals. Using an 0 antibody cut-off of greater than or equal to 1:20, the Widal tube agglutination test yielded a sensitivity of 61% and a specificity of 88%. At a pre-test probability of around 50%, the positive predictive value was 83% and the negative predictive value was 72%. A 4% prevalence of 0 antibodies was noted in the healthy population.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Health, Alabang, Muntinlupa Metro Manila, Philippines.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Aquino
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lansang
authors.forename: V S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Quimpo
authors.forename: L T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Sombrero
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Saniel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000592:standards*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010679:Philippines / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014435:Typhoid Fever / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology