Reliability of Typhidot-M in diagnosis of typhoid fever in children

• Published in: Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 13; no. 5; pp. 136 - 139
• Main Authors: Nithya M, Jamdade, Shrikant, Kannan N, Mitra, Nibedita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara 03.05.2022
• Subjects: child; typhidot-m; typhoid fever; widal test
• ISSN: 2467-9100; 2091-0576
• DOI: 10.3126/ajms.v13i5.42544

Background: Typhoid fever continues to be endemic and a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the developing countries. Many times, it presents a diagnostic challenge to treating physicians due to overlapping clinical features with other common causes of acute fever. A rapid and reliable laboratory test would be of great help to clinicians for early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of typhoid fever. Aims and Objectives: The present study was conducted to assess the reliability of Typhidot-M in diagnosis of typhoid fever. Materials and Methods: A total of 203 children with clinical features consistent with typhoid fever were enrolled in the study. Blood culture, Typhidot-M, and Widal test were performed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for Typhidot-M and Widal test in comparison with blood culture as reference standard. Results: Out of 203 patients, 30 (14.8%) were blood culture positive. One hundred and six patients were Typhidot-M positive and 97 were negative. Typhidot-M had a sensitivity of 93.3%, specificity of 54.9%, and PPV and NPV of 26.4% and 97.9%, respectively. Conclusion: Typhidot-M is a sensitive test for early diagnosis of typhoid fever. However due to low specificity, positive results should be correlated with clinical picture and other possible diagnoses.