DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2013.v01i05.0049

Pages: 548-551

Dengue is one of the rapidly emerging global threats. Many outbreaks are being noticed nowadays all around the world. In situations of epidemic, early diagnosis is the key to successful management of dengue cases. Many diagnostic kits are available commercially for the same purpose. But their validity is unknown. The gold standard in such situations is IgM capture ELISA, though it is more time consuming. In present study, the test results of one of the commercially available rapid immunochromatographic card test are compared with IgM capture ELISA as gold standard. Probable dengue cases were diagnosed as per the WHO criteria and rapid immunochromatographic card test and IgM capture ELISA were conducted on the same serum sample. Results are analyzed. The study was conducted for a period of one year. A total of 66 probable dengue cases were selected. 16 cases were found to be positive for dengue rapid immunochromatographic test, whereas 14 cases were found to be dengue positive by IgM capture ELISA. The sensitivity & specificity of rapid test along with positive predictive value and negative predictive value were deducted and compared with other studies. The study shows that the sensitivity of rapid card test is less but has a good specificity. In situations of epidemic, the card test can be used for screening but with the support of IgM capture ELISA. Highly suspicious cases should be subjected to investigations with higher sensitivity & specificity, though the results take little more time.