Comparison and evaluation of three assays in preliminary screening of dengue infections / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare and evaluate the performance and applications of three assays in preliminary screening of dengue infections.Methods This study was designed as a retrospective study.Clinical data were obtained from 2 137 borderline cases from September to October in 2014 and 2015.Markers of dengue infections of serum samples were detected by NS1 antigen captured ELISA, dengue NS1 detect rapid test and dengue IgM detect rapid test, respectively.Chi square test was used to compare the preliminary screening value of these 3 methods.Forty-eight diagnosed patients were also examined in the 1st-3rd day, 4th-5th day, 6th-7th days and 14th day after infection to access the sensitivities and specificities of three assays.Results Nine hundred and fifty-seven ( 57.2%) cases in 2014 and 48 ( 10.4%) cases in 2015 were diagnosed to be Dengue fever of 2 137 borderline cases.The overall sensitivity of NS1-ELISA was superior to NS1 and IgM rapid detect test (χ2 =40.865,P<0.001;χ2 =151.383,P<0.001).No significant differences were found in specificity between three assays(χ2 =0.661,P=0.416;χ2 =0.548,P=0.459; χ2 =2.397,P=0.122).The NS1 detecting assays were sensitive in 7 days after infection, but the sensitivity of IgM detecting assay increased over time.Conclusions NS1 detecting assays had good sensitivities and specificities, which can be used as an important method in preliminary screening of dengue infection.ELISA or rapid test can be selected according to epidemic situation.