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A new interesting article has been published in Int J Infect Dis. 2019 Jul 26. pii: S1201-9712(19)30307-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.07.022. and titled:

Comparative Evaluation of Immunoassays to Improve Access to Diagnosis for Chagas Disease in Colombia.

Authors of this article are:

Caicedo Díaz RA, Forsyth C, Bernal OA, Marchiol A, Beltrán Duran M, Batista C, Herazo R, Vera MJ, Pachon E, Valencia-Hernández CA, Flórez Sánchez AC.

A summary of the article is shown below:

OBJECTIVE: Chagas disease affects over six million people, but less than 1% are diagnosed and treated. Complicated diagnostic processes are a major barrier. Colombia’s diagnostic algorithm, using in-house tests, has been difficult to scale up, creating significant access barriers for patients. A new algorithm using commercially manufactured immunoassays would potentially improve access, but these tests’ performance in Colombian patients with Chagas disease is not well known.METHODS: We assessed seven commercially available assays. Samples (n = 501), 93·8% originating from Colombia, were characterized as positive or negative based on standard procedure at the National Reference Laboratory. Performance characteristics were calculated for individual assays and hypothetical test pairings, then compared to the existing algorithm.RESULTS: Five of seven assays exhibited sensitivity >98% while six showed specificity >97%. A total antigen ELISA paired with a recombinant assay provided similar performance to the current diagnostic process. Six of six assays tested proved capable of detecting different T. cruzi genetic lineages.CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated that several commercial assays accurately detect T. cruzi infection in Colombian patients. A simplified testing process with two commercial assays could perform comparably to the existing process, reducing cost and accessibility barriers and facilitating national scale-up.Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:

This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: Chagas disease;Trypanosoma cruzi;access to healthcare;diagnostic barriers;enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays;neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

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