Brief Report: Point of Care Cryptococcal Antigen Screening: Pipetting Finger-Prick Blood Improves Performance of Immunomycologics Lateral Flow Assay.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) screening at the point of care could improve cryptococcal meningitis prevention where laboratory resources are limited. We evaluated the accuracy of Immunomycologics (IMMY, Norman, OK) CrAg lateral flow assay (LFA) using different techniques at point of care.

Setting

Two tertiary-level hospitals in Johannesburg and a community health clinic in Soweto, South Africa.

Methods

A case-control diagnostic validation study and a prospective clinic-based implementation study using the IMMY CrAg LFA on finger-prick blood. Accuracy, using direct application of LFA to sample, or pipette to transfer sample to diluent, and reading after 10 and 20 minutes, was compared with laboratory-based plasma testing.

Results

The validation study te

SUBMITTER: Wake RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6381996 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature