Table 3.
Comparison of the Performance of 2 Malaria Rapid Tests for the Diagnosis of Pediatric Severe Falciparum Malaria Compared with Expert Microscopy as the Reference Standard
| Variable | Muheza (n=1024) | Beira (n=874) | Combined (n=1898) |
| Slide positive | 615 (60) | 606 (69) | 1221 (64) |
| pfHRP2-based test | |||
| PfHRP2-based test positive | 692 (68) | 653 (75) | 1345 (71) |
| Sensitivity, % (95% CI) | 95.8 (93.9–97.2) | 92.2 (89.8–94.3) | 94.0 (92.5–95.3) |
| Specificity, % (95% CI) | 74.8 (70.3–79.0) | 64.9 (58.9–70.6) | 70.9 (67.3–74.3) |
| Positive predictive value, % (95% CI) | 85.1 (82.2–87.7) | 85.6 (82.7–88.2) | 85.4 (83.4–87.2) |
| Negative predictive value, % (95% CI) | 92.2 (88.7–94.8) | 78.7 (72.7–83.9) | 86.8 (83.7–89.5) |
| pLDH-based test | |||
| pLDH-based test positive | 592 (58) | 561 (64) | 1153 (61) |
| Sensitivity, % (95% CI) | 91.1 (88.5–93.2) | 84.8 (81.7–87.6) | 88.0 (86.0–89.7) |
| Specificity, % (95% CI) | 92.2 (89.1–94.6) | 82.5 (77.4–86.8) | 88.3 (85.7–90.7) |
| Positive predictive value, % (95% CI) | 94.6 (92.5–96.3) | 91.6 (89.0–93.8) | 93.2 (91.5–94.5) |
| Negative predictive value, % (95% CI) | 87.3 (83.8–90.3) | 70.6 (65.2–75.6) | 80.3 (77.2–83.1) |
NOTE. CI, confidence interval; PfHRP2, Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich-protein2; pLDH, Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase.