Peripheral Brain: Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Infectious Diseases Suitable for Office Use

Abstract

1. Echezona Ezeanolue, MD, MPH* 2. Chinenye Ezeanolue, MD† 3. Barry Dashefsky, MD‡ 1. *Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, Nev 2. †Departments of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark, NJ 3. ‡Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Pediatric Infectious Diseases, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ After reading this article, readers should be able to: 1. Describe the generic qualities of a useful rapid diagnostic test. 2. Identify available rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases suitable for pediatric office use. 3. Understand the clinical utility and performance specifications of individual rapid diagnostic tests. Comment: This article covers content specifications for board recertification but also includes information pertinent for day-to-day office clinical practice. Several commercial products are listed by name to exemplify test differences, but this list should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the products by either the authors or the American Academy of Pediatrics. # {#article-title-2} 1. Joseph A. Zenel, MD, Associate Editor Rapid, accurate diagnosis of infectious diseases accelerates the initiation of appropriate management and may reduce unnecessary additional diagnostic testing and hospitalizations. Rapid diagnosis also facilitates prompt initiation of infection control policies. Technologic advances have resulted in the development of an array of rapid diagnostic tests suitable for the assessment of patients in the office who are suspected of having an infectious disease. This article discusses only those commercially available licensed rapid diagnostic tests exempted by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, thus certifying that they are sufficiently simple so as to be performed reliably by nonlaboratory personnel in office settings. Rapid diagnostic tests suitable for office use should have the following qualities: Many earlier rapid diagnostic tests used latex or other particle agglutination technology, but most current tests use enzyme immunoassay (EIA) or optical immunoassay (OIA) technologies, which …