Multi-method assessment of patients with febrile illness reveals over-diagnosis of malaria in rural Uganda
Ghai et al.
The finding, in our words
Finger-prick capillary blood sampling for rapid diagnostic tests achieved 92.6% sensitivity and 95.5% specificity for malaria in rural Uganda, matching microscopy and outperforming symptom-based diagnosis which would have misdiagnosed 62% of patients. Both rapid tests and microscopy missed non-falciparum species detected only by PCR, showing a limitation of point-of-care methods despite their feasibility for decentralised diagnosis in resource-limited settings.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The study validated a semi-quantitative protocol for Epstein-Barr virus serology using dried blood spots, demonstrating 98.8% sensitivity and 96.5% specificity compared to paired venous serum samples. The successful validation in a self-sampling cohort confirms the suitability of this patient-centric microsampling approach for large-scale seroprevalence studies and decentralised trials.
Capillary blood samples collected by staff or self-collected by participants showed strong correlation and clinically acceptable agreement with venipuncture for influenza haemagglutination inhibition titers. The small differences observed were not clinically meaningful, and adequate sample volume was achieved in most attempts, supporting the feasibility of decentralised serological testing.
Rick et al., Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology (paywalled) · source ↗
This study found strong concordance between capillary samples collected via the Tasso device and standard venous draws for VirScan serology, indicating that self-collected samples are a practical alternative for decentralised research. The authors advise against interchanging these collection methods within a single longitudinal study to avoid introducing technical variability.
Capillary samples collected using dried blood spots and Mitra microsamplers showed strong agreement with venous plasma for quantifying IgG antibodies against most vaccine-preventable diseases. Sensitivity was high for the majority of pathogens, though the study noted that antibody stability declined at room temperature over time, favouring cold storage for longer durations.
Ombati et al., Scientific reports (paywalled) · source ↗
In a cohort of 62 participants evaluating home self-collection with the TassoPlus device, 38 returned samples, with 29% excluded due to insufficient plasma volume below 200 ΔL. Although viral load measurements in adequate samples correlated well with conventional testing (r = 0.800), the high failure rate and missed detection in low-volume viremic samples indicate that further technical refinements are necessary before clinical adoption.