Table 3. Agreement between different techniques for the diagnosis of S. mansoni.

Diagnostic approach	Test result	Setting A				Setting B				Setting C
		Nine Kato-Katz thick smears				Nine Kato-Katz thick smears				Nine Kato-Katz thick smears
		Positive	Negative	K*	P-values	Positive	Negative	K*	P-values	Positive	Negative	K*	P-values
One Kato-Katz thick smear	Positive	12	0			32	0			129	0
	Negative	36	98	0.31	<0.001	37	61	0.45	<0.001	27	14	0.44	<0.001
Three Kato-Katz thick smears	Positive	23	0			51	0			147	0
	Negative	25	98	0.55	<0.001	18	61	0.73	<0.001	9	14	0.73	<0.001
One CCA-A	Positive	27	6			48	5			138	2
	Negative	21	92	0.54	<0.001	21	56	0.60	<0.001	16	11	0.49	<0.001
Three CCA-A	Positive	32	17			51	9			138	3
	Negative	16	80	0.49	<0.001	15	48	0.61	<0.001	13	10	0.51	<0.001
One CCA-B	Positive	5	0			20	2			117	0
	Negative	43	98	0.14	0.001	47	59	0.26	<0.001	39	14	0.33	<0.001
One ether-concentration	Positive	4	2			9	0			64	1
	Negative	44	96	0.08	0.044	60	61	0.12	0.002	92	13	0.09	0.008

The study was carried out in three settings in south Côte d'Ivoire in October and November 2010. The κ-agreement of a single Kato-Katz thick smear from the first collected stool sample, triplicate Kato-Katz thick smears from the first collected stool sample, one CCA-A from the first collected urine sample, three CCA-A tests from three collected urine samples, one CCA-B test from the first collected urine sample, and one ether-concentration test on SAF-fixed stool samples from the second collected stool sample versus our diagnostic ‘gold’ standard of nine Kato-Katz thick smears (triplicate Kato-Katz thick smears from each of three stool samples) for the diagnosis of S. mansoni was calculated.

*Κ stands for kappa, κ<0 indicating no agreement, κ = 0–0.2 indicating poor agreement, κ = 0.21–0.4 indicating fair agreement, κ = 0.41–0.6 indicating moderate agreement, κ = 0.61–0.8 indicating substantial agreement, and κ = 0.81–1.0 indicating almost perfect agreement [27], [28].