The Easy and Early Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever
Background and Objective: Typhoid fever is endemic in India. Its diagnosis is usually confirmed by blood culture, clot culture, stool culture and the Widal agglutination test. In the present study, we assessed the usefulness of the Enterocheck WB test in detecting the IgM antibodies in typhoid f...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited
2012-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/2034/12a-%204058.A.pdf |
| Summary: | Background and Objective: Typhoid fever is endemic in India.
Its diagnosis is usually confirmed by blood culture, clot culture,
stool culture and the Widal agglutination test. In the present
study, we assessed the usefulness of the Enterocheck WB test
in detecting the IgM antibodies in typhoid fever.
Materials and Methods: A total of 83 cases of clinically
suspected typhoid fever were included in the study. A blood
culture and the Widal test were done by using the standard
methods. The Enterocheck WB test was done according to the
manufacturer’s instructions.
Results: Of the 83 cases, the blood culture was positive for
Salmonella typhi in 19 (22.89%) cases, among which the Widal
test was positive in 12 (14.45%) cases and the Enterocheck
WB test was positive in 17 (20.48%) cases. The sensitivity &
specificity of the Enterocheck WB test were found to be 89.47%
and 96.87% respectively.
Interpretation and Conclusion: We compared the sensitivity
and the specificity of the Enterocheck WB test and the Widal test
to those of the blood culture as the gold standard method in the
diagnosis of typhoid fever. We found that the Enterocheck WB
test for the detection of the IgM antibodies was easy to perform
and that no special equipment or prior training of the paramedical staff were required for the testing and the interpretation
of the results. Hence, it can be concluded that the Enterocheck
WB test can be used as a complimentary test as compared to
the blood culture and the Widal test for the diagnosis of typhoid
fever. |
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| ISSN: | 2249-782X 0973-709X |