Willcox 2009b.

Clinical features and settings	Presenting signs and symptoms: Symptoms of uncomplicated malaria, primarily fever Previous treatment for malaria: No exclusion criteria based on previous antimalarial use, and no data presented on the numbers that previously used antimalarials Clinical setting: Village health worker Country: Mali Malaria endemicity: Mesoendemic Malaria endemic species: mainly P. falciparum
Participants	Sample size: 143 aged five or over (301 total) Age: All ages included in the study. Refers only to the analysis of participants over the age of five years. Sex: Both males and females eligible. Co‐morbidities and pregnancy: No exclusion criteria based on co‐morbidities. No details of the frequency of these conditions in the participant population is presented. Parasite density of microscopy positive cases: Geometric mean 267 parasites per μl, 95% CI 172 to 413
Study design	Enrollment was consecutive and prospective. One RDT was tested.
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Target condition: Malaria parasitaemia Reference standard: Microscopy thick and thin blood smears Person(s) performing microscopy: Experienced microscopists Microscopy setting: Field laboratory Number of high power fields examined before declaring negative: 100 Number of observer or repeats: Two independent microscopists Resolution of discrepancies between observers: Cross checked until both microscopists agreed.
Index and comparator tests	Commerical name of RDT: Paracheck Pf (Orchid Biomedical Systems, Goa, India) Parasite(s) designed to detect:P. falciparum Designated Type: Type 1 Batch numbers: Not stated Transport and storage conditions: Stored at room temperatures of up to 40°C Person(s) performing RDT: A clinician and a laboratory technician from the research team RDT setting: Field laboratory
Follow‐up	Not applicable
Notes	Source of funding: Swiss Agency for Development and Co‐operation. Orchid Biomedical Systems supplied the Paracheck Pf tests free of charge.
Table of Methodological Quality
Item	Authors' judgement	Description
Representative spectrum? All tests	Yes	Participants were a consecutive series of patients presenting with suspected malaria
Acceptable reference standard? All tests	Yes	Two experienced microscopists viewed 100 high power fields before declaring a slide negative
Partial verification avoided? All tests	Yes	All participants who received the index test also received the reference test
Differential verification avoided? All tests	Yes	The same reference test was used regardless of the index test results
Incorporation avoided? All tests	Yes	The index test does not form part of the reference standard
Reference standard results blinded? All tests	Yes	Reported that microscopists were blinded to the results of the RDTs
Index test results blinded? All tests	Yes	Dipsticks were labelled with random numbers so that the people recording the results did not know which people the tests belonged to
Uninterpretable results reported? All tests	Yes	There were no uninterpretable test results (the control line was positive in all cases)
Withdrawals explained? All tests	Yes	The number of participants enrolled was explicitly stated and corresponded to the number presented in the analysis; therefore there were no withdrawals