You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 8, Issue Suppl 10
  • PA-69 Performance of ultra-sensitive malaria rapid diagnostic test to detect plasmodium falciparum infection in pregnant women in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Abstracts of Poster and e-Poster Presentations
PA-69 Performance of ultra-sensitive malaria rapid diagnostic test to detect plasmodium falciparum infection in pregnant women in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Free
  1. Japhet Kabalu Tshiongo1,2,3,
  2. Vivi Maketa2,
  3. Flory Luzolo1,
  4. Melissa Kabena1,
  5. Lise Kuseke1,
  6. Moussa Djimdé2,3,4,
  7. Patrick Mitashi1,
  8. Crispin Lumbala5,6,
  9. Kassoum Kayentao4,
  10. Sandra Menting2,
  11. Petra F Mens2,3,
  12. Henk DFH Schallig2,3,
  13. Pascal Lutumba1,
  14. Halidou Tinto7,
  15. Hypolite Muhindo Mavoko1
  1. 1University of Kinshasa, Department of Tropical Medicine, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  2. 2Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Academic Medical Centres at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Laboratory for Experimental Parasitology, The Netherlands
  3. 3Amsterdam Institute for Infection and Immunity, Infectious Diseases Programme, The Netherlands
  4. 4Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), University of Sciences of Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), Mali
  5. 5Clinton Health Access Initiative, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  6. 6Global Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, Belgium
  7. 7Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé – Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (IRSS-CRUN), Burkina Faso

Abstract

Background Low peripheral parasitemia caused by sequestration of Plasmodium falciparum in the placenta hampers the diagnosis of malaria in pregnant women, leading to microscopy or conventional rapid diagnostic tests (co-RDTs) false-negative results. Although mainly asymptomatic, maternal malaria remains harmful to pregnant women and their offspring in endemic settings and must be adequately diagnosed. Ultra-sensitive RDTs (uRDTs) are thought to be more sensitive than co-RDTs, and their diagnostic performance was assessed in the present study in pregnant women living in Kinshasa, a stable malaria transmission area in the Democratic Republic Congo.

Methods To assess and compare the performances of both co-RDTs and uRDTs, 497 peripheral blood samples were tested using microscopy and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) as the index and the reference tests respectively. The agreement between uRDT, co-RDT, microscopy and qPCR was determined by Cohen’s Kappa test.

Results The median parasite density by qPCR was 292 p/μL of blood [IQR 292 (49.7–1,137)]. Using qPCR as the reference diagnostic test, microscopy was the least sensitive test [55.7% (95% CI: 47.6–63.6)], followed by co-RDT [81.7% (95%CI:74.7–87.3)] and uRDT [88% (95% CI:81.9–92.6)]. The corresponding specificity was respectively: 98.5% (95% CI:96.6–99.5), 95.2% (95% CI:92.5–97.2) and 94.4% (95% CI:91.4–96.6). The agreement between qPCR and uRDT was almost perfect (kappa=0.82). For parasite density (qPCR) below 100p/µL, the sensitivity of co-RDT was 62% (95%CI:47.1–75.3) compared to 68% (95%CI:53.3–80.4). Between 100 and 200p/µL, the sensitivity of co-RDT tended to be lower compared to uRDT: 89.4%(95%CI:66.8–98.7) versus 100%(95%CI:82.3–100) for uRDT. In both cases, microscopy was lower, with 20% (95%CI:10–33.7) and 47.3% (95%CI:24.4–71.1) respectively.

Conclusion uRDT tended to be more sensitive than co-RDT in the detection of malaria in pregnant women. Therefore, it has the potential to improve malaria management in pregnant women. Microscopy shows poor performance for the diagnosis of malaria in pregnancy.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-EDC.74

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.