Journal article
Defining the true sensitivity of culture for the diagnosis of melioidosis using Bayesian latent class models
D Limmathurotsakul, K Jamsen, A Arayawichanont, JA Simpson, LJ White, SJ Lee, V Wuthiekanun, N Chantratita, A Cheng, NPJ Day, C Verzilli, SJ Peacock
Plos One | Published : 2010
Abstract
Background: Culture remains the diagnostic gold standard for many bacterial infections, and the method against which other tests are often evaluated. Specificity of culture is 100% if the pathogenic organism is not found in healthy subjects, but the sensitivity of culture is more difficult to determine and may be low. Here, we apply Bayesian latent class models (LCMs) to data from patients with a single Gram-negative bacterial infection and define the true sensitivity of culture together with the impact of misclassification by culture on the reported accuracy of alternative diagnostic tests. Methods/Principal Findings: Data from published studies describing the application of five diagnostic..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This study was funded by The Wellcome Trust of Great Britain. The funder has no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by staff at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit and the Sapprasithiprasong Hospital. We thank Jintana Suwannapruk, Varinthorn Praikaew, Pitchayanant Ariyaprasert, Maliwan Hongsuwan, Sukanya Pangmee, and Gumphol Vongsuwan for technical support. This article is an original report that was presented in part at the Joint International Tropical Medicine Meeting (JITMM) in Bangkok, Thailand on December 3-4, 2009.