Table 5.

Summary of performance characteristics of molecular assays for diagnosis of scrub typhus

Target	Assay	Sensitivity (%)	Specificity (%)
56 kDa	Conventional PCR109–111	0–96	100
	Nested PCR18,20,49,80,81,83,96,109,110,112–119	16–100	88–100
	qPCR120,121	65–73	100
47 kDa	Conventional PCR110,111	3–7	100
	Nested PCR110,111	81–85	100
	qPCR49,81,110,122	63–81	90–100
	LAMP123,*	52	94
16S rRNA	Conventional PCR111,119	45–87	100
	qPCR124	52	100
GroEL	Conventional PCR111	66	100
	Nested PCR125	90.4	100
	qPCR49,81,126,127	56.4	96.2
	LAMP81,127	87.5	100

Note:

^*An evaluation done using 24 eschar samples from scrub typhus-confirmed cases showed sensitivity and specificity of 83.3% and 100%, respectively (Prakash, unpublished data, 2012).

Abbreviations: qPCR, quantitative polymerase chain reaction; LAMP, loop-mediated isothermal amplification; rRNA, ribosomal RNA.