Abstract
.Leptospirosis is a globally important cause of acute febrile illness, and a common cause of non-malarial fever in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Simple rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are needed to enable health-care workers, particularly in low resource settings, to diagnose leptospirosis early and give timely targeted treatment. This study compared four commercially available RDTs to detect human IgM against Leptospira spp. in a head-to-head prospective evaluation in Mahosot Hospital, Lao PDR. Patients with an acute febrile illness consistent with leptospirosis (N = 695) were included in the study during the 2014 rainy season. Samples were tested with four RDTs: (“Test-it” [Life Assay, Cape Town, South Africa; N = 418]; “Leptorapide” [Linnodee, Ballyclare, Northern Ireland; N = 492]; “Dual Path Platform” [DPP] [Chembio, Medford, NY; N = 530]; and “SD-IgM” [Standard Diagnostics, Yongin, South Korea; N = 481]). Diagnostic performance characteristics were calculated and compared with a composite reference standard combining polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (rrs), microscopic agglutination tests (MATs), and culture. Of all patients investigated, 39/695 (5.6%) were positive by culture, PCR, or MAT. The sensitivity and specificity of the RDTs ranged greatly from 17.9% to 63.6% and 62.1% to 96.8%, respectively. None of the investigated RDTs reached a sensitivity or specificity of > 90% for detecting Leptospira infections on admission. In conclusion, our investigation highlights the challenges associated with Leptospira diagnostics, particularly in populations with multiple exposures. These findings emphasize the need for extensive prospective evaluations in multiple endemic settings to establish the value of rapid tools for diagnosing fevers to allow targeting of antibiotics.
Highlights
Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease worldwide, with its frequency and severity increasingly recognized.[1,2] It has been shown to be a significant cause of meningoencephalitis in Laos and Thailand.[3]
Given the global environmental presence of Leptospira spp. and that they have been identified as an important cause of fever in many large non-malarial fever studies,[14,15,16] a simple, rapid diagnostic tool for diagnosing leptospirosis could have a large impact on patient care globally
We evaluated four rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) which all detect anti-Leptospira IgM
Summary
Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease worldwide, with its frequency and severity increasingly recognized.[1,2] It has been shown to be a significant cause of meningoencephalitis in Laos and Thailand.[3]. Vast areas of the tropics where leptospirosis is endemic have extremely limited diagnostic laboratory capacity.[5] Even where the laboratory capacity exists, diagnosis using specific culture or serological microscopic agglutination test (MAT) methods[2] requires considerable expertise that is not widely available, and results are only available weeks after the initial clinical presentation. At this point, no clear guidance by international bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) exists as to which test is recommended for acute detection. It is likely that the differences, for specificity, are mainly due to background antibody levels in patients who have had multiple exposures to the pathogen, similar to the challenges faced with Orientia tsutsugamushi (scrub typhus) diagnosis in endemic areas.[10]
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