To Study of diagnostic efficacy of widal slide agglutination test against widal tube agglutination test in enteric fever

Abstract

Background: Enteric fever is an important cause of morbidity in many regions of the world, with an estimated 13 million cases occurring annually in Asia alone.
Methods: Pre-collected blood samples on OPD and indoor bases with widal test request from enteric fever suspected cases were received in the microbiology lab for the processing and study was done over a period of 3 months.
Results: In our study, slide widal agglutination test showed very high false positivity for S.typhi H antigen and very low false positivity for S.typhi O antigen, when compared to tube widal agglutination test as a standard. The slide widal agglutination test also showed high positive predictive value for S.typhi O antigen and low positive predictive value for S.typhi H antigen, when compared to tube widal agglutination test as a standard.
Conclusion: The high false positivity and low positive predictive value shown by the slide agglutination test is to caution that the results of slide agglutination should not be solely relied upon for diagnosis and treatment of enteric fever.
Keywords: Agglutination, Slide, Tube, Widal test.