Title: Comparative study of Dot enzyme immune assay and Widal test in the diagnosis of Typhoid fever in a tertiary care hospital in south Kerala
Authors: Sahira Haneefa, Sumayya K S, Biju Rani V R
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i6.30
Abstract
Typhoid fever is acute and often life-threatening febrile illnesses caused by systemic infection with the bacteria Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. The disease is endemic in the Indian subcontinent including Bangladesh, South-East and the Middle East Africa, Central and South America1 . The signs and symptoms of typhoid fever are non specific. So diagnosis relies not only on the clinical features of the disease, but also on investigative methods like culture and sensitivity, detection of agglutinating antibodies to Salmonella typhi by the Widal test. Serologic diagnostic tests for typhoid fever by immunochromatographic test (ICT) are good alternatives2 .
Aim: Comparison of immuno dot and widal test for the detection of typhoid fever among the febrile patients of Medical college, Thiruvananthapuram.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among febrile patients attended in Govt. Medical college Trivandrum for a period of 6months, from March to September 2015.
Result: Out of 433 cases 26 (6%) were positive and 407 ( 94%) were negative by Widal test, whereas 21 (4.85%) were positive and 413 ( 95.15%) were negative by immunochromatography. Sensitivity and specificity of immunochromatographic method was 80.8% and 100% respectively considering widal as the standard test.
Conclusion: Widal test has been used extensively used as a laboratory tool for diagnosis of typhoid fever in most laboratories, but it is laborious, time consuming and may not be positive in early stages and is to be interpreted judiciously3. ICT is a simple and sensitive test for early diagnosis of typhoid fever. The results can be visually interpreted and is available within one hour.
