Assessment of case detection performance of tuberculosis patients registered for treatment in tuberculosis units of Satara district, Maharashtra

Background: Tuberculosis is a chronic, communicable, infectious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli usually affecting lungs primarily resulting in pulmonary tuberculosis. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) through the assessment of case detection performance of the patients registered for treatment under RNTCP in tuberculosis units (TUs). Materials and Methods: The present record-based, observational cross-sectional study was carried out under district tuberculosis centre, Satara, involving all the 10 TUs. District tuberculosis centre is located in the campus of District Hospital, Satara. The functioning of RNTCP under district tuberculosis centre at the level of TUs was studied from 2012 to 2014. Fifty slides of sputum smear positive and 50 slides of sputum smear negative for tuberculosis were selected randomly. Results: Tuberculosis suspect rate was found consistently increasing from 2012 to 2014 in majority of TUs except Umbraj TU. Sputum positive rate was also consistently low in Umbraj TU. Sputum positive smear rate was higher in Bel-Air TU consistently from 2012 followed by Satara TU. Annualized new smear-positive case detection rate was higher in Satara and Bel-Air TUs in 2012; however, it was within the range of 68–83% in 2012 which rose to 86.9% in 2013 at Koregaon and 89.5% at Wai TU in 2014. Conclusion: Tuberculosis suspect rate is consistently low at both Umbraj and Bel-Air TU. Sputum smear-positive rate is consistently higher at Satara and Bel-Air TU.

Performance of the PROTIA(TM) Allergy-Q(R) System in the Detection of Allergen-specific IgE: A Comparison With the ImmunoCAP(R) System

PURPOSE: The PROTIA(TM) Allergy-Q(R) enzyme immunoassay (EIA) is a recently developed screening assay for specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) for multiple allergens. The ImmunoCAP(R) fluorescent EIA (FEIA) system is the most widely used method for sIgE detection. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the Allergy-Q(R) system compared to the ImmunoCAP(R) system. METHODS: We compared the 2 systems using sera from 260 Korean allergy patients suffering from asthma (26.5%), allergic rhinitis (42.3%), atopic dermatitis (67.7%), and food allergy (18.1%). We compared sIgE-measurement results for 7 inhalant allergens, 5 food allergens, and 4 microorganism allergens. RESULTS: Overall, 1,799 paired assay results were analyzed. Except mugwort and alternaria, most of the allergen-sIgE results showed intra-class correlation coefficients of >0.5. Inter-assay class associations were reliable for most allergens (gamma=0.858-0.987, P<0.001). Passing-Bablok regression analysis showed multiple differences in intercept and slope. The inter-method concordance was moderate to substantial for most allergens (kappa=0.713-0.898, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The PROTIA(TM) Allergy-Q(R) EIA system exhibited good detection performance compared to the ImmunoCAP(R) FEIA system in Korean allergic patients. However, because of methodological differences between the 2 assays, careful clinical implication is required for the interpretation of Allergy-Q(R) EIA results.

Proposal on ROC-theory based quantitative assessment of radiologists'diagnostic competence / 中华医院管理杂志

Perfofinance of the radio-diagnostic system can be evaluated quantitatively by the analysis method of the ROC curve.Areas under the ROC curves represent the diagnostic perfogrmance efficiency.A comparison of the perforrmance variance of the diagnostic system incurred by different diagnosticians,will find the diagnostic competence of individual diagnosticians.This can help hospital management in deploying personnel in the department of radiology reasonably.