We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Urinary Dipstick Tested for Intestinal Schistosomiasis

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 18 Mar 2013
Print article
Image: A schistosome pair, with the thin female located in the male gynecophorical canal (Photo courtesy of MetaPathogen).
Image: A schistosome pair, with the thin female located in the male gynecophorical canal (Photo courtesy of MetaPathogen).
The Urine Circulating Cathodic Antigen (CCA) dipstick has been tested as a substitute for microscopy for mapping and point-of-care (POC) diagnosis of intestinal schistosomiasis.

The diagnostic performance of a commercially available urinary CCA dipstick test has been compared to that of fecal microscopy for POC diagnosis in preschool-aged children.

Scientists at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (Liverpool, UK) working with colleagues in Uganda recruited a total of 925 children whose mean age was 2.8 years, from six lakeshore villages representative of high, moderate and low levels of disease transmission. At baseline, all children were tested for intestinal schistosomiasis by microscopic examination of duplicate Kato-Katz smears prepared from a single stool; by antigen detection with the urine CCA immunochromatographic dipstick; and by serology with a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA; IVD Inc.; Carlsbad, CA, USA) that measures host antibody titers to soluble egg antigens.

In low, moderate, and high transmission settings, the observed prevalence of egg-patent schistosomiasis according to fecal microscopy was 7.2%, 16.9% and 38.8% before treatment, and 6.9%, 25.0% and 47.5% one year after treatment. In low, moderate, and high transmission settings, the observed prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni infections according to CCA dipsticks (Rapid Medical Diagnostics; Pretoria, Republic of South Africa) was 45.9%, 45.4% and 56.1% before treatment, and 39.6%, 44.8% and 55.9% one year after treatment, respectively. Most of the positive diagnoses were single positive reactions, with few double and triple positive reaction recorded.

According to the ELISA results, the observed prevalence of S. mansoni infections was 36.0%, 49.0%, and 81.6% before treatment and 18.4%, 52.8%, and 92.0% one year after treatment, in low, moderate, and high transmission settings, respectively. As a point-of-care diagnosis, the urine CCA dipstick achieved sensitivity values ranging from 52.5% to 63.2% and specificity values of 57.7% to 75.6%. Fecal microscopy achieved very high specificities of greater than 87%, but sensitivities as low as 16.7% in the low transmission setting.

The authors concluded that the CCA is a viable alternative for diagnosis of S. mansoni infections in preschool-aged children, particularly in low transmission settings or in areas where treatment has reduced prevalence to low levels. The urine CCA commercial test was proven more sensitive than fecal smears for mapping proposes, and it was as reliable as fecal microscopy for point-of-care diagnosis. The study was published on January 24, 2013, in the journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Related Links:
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
IVD Inc.
Rapid Medical Diagnostics

Gold Member
Pharmacogenetics Panel
VeriDose Core Panel v2.0
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Total 25-Hydroxyvitamin D₂ & D₃ Assay
25-OH-VD Reagent Kit
New
cTnI/CK-MB/Myo Test
Finecare cTnI/CK-MB/Myo Rapid Quantitative Test

Print article

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.