title: Intestinal schistosomiasis in pre school-aged children of Lake Albert, Uganda: diagnostic accuracy of a rapid test for detection of anti-schistosome antibodies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A sensitive and reliable rapid diagnostic test (RDT) which should have comparable diagnostic performance against reference host serological methods is urgently needed for use in point-of-care (POC) diagnosis of intestinal schistosomiasis in pre school-aged children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The diagnostic accuracy of a RDT incorporating Schistosoma mansoni cercarial transformation fluid (SmCTF) for anti-schistosome antibody detection was evaluated with serum samples from a cohort of children from Uganda: 42 children aged under the age of 3 years and 40 children aged between 3 and 5 years. The infection status of these children had been previously determined by inspection of quadruplicate Kato-Katz faecal smears, a single urine circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) dipstick and antibody titres to S. mansoni soluble egg antigen (SmSEA) with a commercially available ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Upon comparison with quadruplicate Kato-Katz the sensitivity and specificity of the RDT were 75.7% and 31.1%, respectively. When using the SmSEA-ELISA as an alternate reference test, the RDT achieved 81.3% sensitivity and 61.1% specificity. Sensitivity and specificity compared to the urine-CCA test was 74.5% and 32.3% respectively. Sensitivity differed significantly according to age group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The performance of the RDT within this study appeared favourable when compared with the currently-available SmSEA-ELISA. Looking to the future a serological POC test would be particularly promising for use in disease mapping in younger children especially in guiding administration of praziquantel treatment in selective treatment settings.
authors: School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
authors: Emily M
authors: EM
authors: Dawson
authors: José C
authors: JC
authors: Sousa-Figueiredo
authors: Narcis B
authors: NB
authors: Kabatereine
authors: Michael J
authors: MJ
authors: Doenhoff
authors: J Russell
authors: JR
authors: Stothard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000909:Antibodies, Helminth / Q000097:blood*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010274:Parasitology / Q000379:methods*; D012550:Schistosoma mansoni / Q000276:immunology*; D012555:Schistosomiasis mansoni / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000652:urine; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014454:Uganda / Q000453:epidemiology; D014556:Urine / Q000469:parasitology
chemical_list: D000909:Antibodies, Helminth
keywords: Cercariae; Mapping; Schistosomiasis; Sensitivity; Serodiagnosis; Specificity