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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Nov 16.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Infect Dis. 2014 May 30;59(5):676–681. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciu397

Table 3.

Lyme disease testing volume data, sensitivity and specificity values, and observed and predicted percent positive by test for large commercial laboratories in four endemic states

Test Type Number of Tests Sensitivity-Localized Disease1 Sensitivity-Disseminated Disease1 Specificity Observed % Positive2 Predicted % Positive3 Predicted % Difference
Two-Tiered Whole Cell 297,619 37.0% 87.0% 99.4% 5.79 5.76 0.03
EIA/IFA standalone or first tier4 287,595 66.9% 93.3% 96.1% 11.89 11.89 0.00
1

Se and Sp values derived from listed references [6, 18–23, 25]

2

Observed percent positive values were derived by combining data from five large commercial laboratories for residents of four endemic states (CT, MD, MN, NY; see online supplement)

3

Predicted percent positive values were iteratively derived using data on the number of tests performed, Se and Sp of tests, an estimate for proportion of tests run from patients having localized/early disease, and an estimate for the true rate of infection (see online supplement)

4

Based on EIA/IFA standalone combined with first tier of two-tiered assays