title: Evaluation of rk39 immunochromatographic test with urine for diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis.
abstract: This study evaluates commercially available rK39 immunochromatographic strips using urine for diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Freshly collected urine and serum samples of 280 parasitologically confirmed VL patients and 66 endemic healthy controls (EHC), 48 nonendemic healthy controls (NEHC) and 45 different diseases were tested with rK39 strips. The sensitivity of rK39 in urine was 96.4% while the specificity was low varying from 66.7% in EHC, 77.08% in NEHC to 62.2% in different diseases. With serum, sensitivity was 100% whereas the specificity was 100%, 92.4% and 95.55% for the respective control groups. In the present format, the immunochromatographic strips cannot be used for the diagnosis of VL using urine samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, U.P., India.
authors.forename: Jaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chakravarty
authors.forename: Subodh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Shalini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gautam
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sundar
mesh_terms: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000652:urine*; D002845:Chromatography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000953:Antigens, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; C079253:K39 antigen, Leishmania