BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Presence of proteinuria is considered as an early marker of an increased risk of progressive kidney disease. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) treatment to persons with proteinuria and chronic kidney disease has been shown to decrease the progression to endstage renal disease. As the exact prevalence of prote...

We compared an rK39 dipstick rapid test (Amrad ICT, Australia) with a direct agglutination test (DAT) and splenic aspirate for the diagnosis of kala-azar in 77 patients. The study was carried out under field conditions in an endemic area of north-east Sudan. The sensitivity of the rK39 test compared with splenic aspiration was 92% (46/50), the specificity 59% (16/27), and the positive predictiv...

BACKGROUND We describe a test for rapid detection of S. dysenteriae 1 in bacterial cultures and in stools, at the bedside of patients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS The test is based on the detection of S. dysenteriae 1 lipopolysaccharide (LPS) using serotype 1-specific monoclonal antibodies coupled to gold particles and displayed on a one-step immunochromatographic dipstick. A concentration...

A dipstick assay for the detection of brucella-specific immunoglobulin M antibodies was evaluated with 707 sera from 247 laboratory-confirmed brucellosis patients and 342 control sera from brucellosis-free individuals. These sera were collected from six different countries. The assay was found to be highly sensitive and specific. In addition, the test is easy to use and does not require special...

BACKGROUND Dipsticks are one of the most commonly used near-patient tests in primary care, but few clinical or dipstick algorithms have been rigorously developed. AIM To confirm whether previously documented clinical and dipstick variables and algorithms predict laboratory diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI). DESIGN OF STUDY Validation study. SETTING Primary care. METHOD A total ...

Rapid kidney function decline (RKFD) predicts cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but serial assessment of estimated GFR (eGFR) is not cost-effective for the general population. Here, we evaluated the predictive value of albuminuria and three thresholds of dipstick proteinuria to identify RKFD in 2,574 participants in a community-based prospective cohort study with a median of 7 years follo...

Gold nanoparticles and gold nanoshells functionalised with a selection of carbohydrates: glyco-nanoparticles towards lectin detection in dipstick assay.

BACKGROUND Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are common in primary care resulting in substantial costs. Since antimicrobial resistance against antibiotics for UTIs is rising, accurate diagnosis is needed in settings with low rates of multidrug-resistant bacteria. OBJECTIVE To compare the cost-effectiveness of different strategies to diagnose UTIs in women who contacted their gener...

BACKGROUND Early identification of patients at risk of developing a severe attack of acute pancreatitis (AP) is of great importance because rapid therapeutic interventions improve outcome. At a cutoff of 50 microg/L, trypsinogen-2 measured by a rapid urinary dipstick is a sensitive and specific diagnostic test in AP. The trypsinogen-2 concentration correlates with the severity of the disease, a...

Confirmatory test for syphilis such as fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption test (FTA-ABS), Treponema pallidum immobilization test (TPI), Treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test are technically demanding and not available in most developing country settings outside of reference laboratories. By far, TPHA test has the sensitivity and specificity almost similar to that of FTA-ABS t...