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Volume 29, Number 8—August 2023
Research Letter

Rapid Serologic Test for Diagnosis of Yaws in Patients with Suspicious Skin Ulcers

Clara SuñerComments to Author , Lucy N. John, Wendy Houinei, Maria Ubals, Dan Ouchi, Andrea Alemany, Cristina Galván-Casas, Michael Marks, Oriol Mitjà, Martí Vall-Mayans, and Camila G. Beiras
Author affiliations: Fight Infections Foundation, Badalona, Spain (C. Suñer, L.N. John, M. Ubals, D. Ouchi, A. Alemany, C. Galván-Casas, O. Mitjà, M. Vall-Mayans, C.G. Beiras); University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona (C. Suñer, M. Ubals, A. Alemany, O. Mitjà, M. Vall-Mayans, C.G. Beiras); ; National Department of Health, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (L.N. John, W. Houinei); University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby (L.N. John, O. Mitjà); Hospital Universitario de Móstoles, Madrid, Spain (C. Galván-Casas); London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK (M. Marks); Hospital for Tropical Diseases, London (M. Marks); University College London, London (M. Marks)

Main Article

Table

Performance of DPP Syphilis Screen & Confirm kit in study of rapid serologic test for diagnosis of yaws in patients with suspicious skin ulcers

Detection technique
 PCR negative
 Specificity, % (95% CI)
 PCR positive
 Sensitivity, % (95% CI)
 Sensitivity + specificity, %
 PPV, % (95% CI)
 NPV, % (95% CI)
Detected, no.
 Not detected, no.
 Detected, no.
 Not detected, no.
Naked eye
T line 357 351 49.6 
(45.8–53.3) 227 60 79.1 
(73.9–83.7) 128.7 38.9
(34.9–43.0)		 85.4
(81.6–88.7)
NT line 278 430 60.7 
(57.0–64.4) 241 46 84.0 
(79.2–88.0) 144.7 46.4
(42.1–50.8)		 90.3
(87.3–92.8)
T and NT line
 222
 486
 68.6 
(65.1–72.1)
 214
 73
 74.6 
(69.1–79.5)
 143.2
 49.1
(44.3–53.9)
 86.9
(83.9–89.6)
Reader
T >1 and NT 
reader >28† 130 451 77.6 
(74.0–81.0) 187 60 75.7 
(69.9–80.9) 153.3 59.0
(53.4–64.5)		 88.3
(85.2–90.9)

*DPP (Dual Path Platform) Syphilis Screen & Confirm kit, Chembio (https://chembio.com). NPV, negative predictive value; NT line, antibodies against non–Treponema pallidum antigen; PPV, positive predictive value; T line, antibodies against T. pallidum antigen. †Values used as cutoff with the DPP reader were calculated to maximize the sum of sensitivity and specificity (Figure).

Main Article

Page created: June 12, 2023
Page updated: July 20, 2023
Page reviewed: July 20, 2023
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