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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Jul 28:339:b2655.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.b2655.

Performance evaluation of a new rapid urine test for chlamydia in men: prospective cohort study

Elpidio-Cesar Nadala  1 , Beng T Goh, Jose-Paolo Magbanua, Penelope Barber, Alison Swain, Sarah Alexander, Vivian Laitila, Claude-Edouard Michel, Lourdes Mahilum-Tapay, Ines Ushiro-Lumb, Catherine Ison, Helen H Lee
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Performance evaluation of a new rapid urine test for chlamydia in men: prospective cohort study

Elpidio-Cesar Nadala et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the performance of a rapid test for chlamydia with first void male urine samples as a potential tool for diagnosis and screening of chlamydial infection in men.

Design: Evaluation of test performance in prospective cohort study. Settings A young people's sexual health centre (site 1) and a genitourinary medicine clinic (site 2) in the United Kingdom.

Participants: 1211 men aged 16-73 attending either of the two sites.

Main outcome measures: Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the Chlamydia Rapid Test versus polymerase chain reaction assay. Relation between the visual signal of the Chlamydia Rapid Test and organism load.

Results: Detection rates for Chlamydia trachomatis infection with polymerase chain reaction were 4.4% (20/454) at site 1 and 11.9% (90/757) at site 2. Compared with polymerase chain reaction assay, the resolved sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the Chlamydia Rapid Test was 82.6% (90/109), 98.5% (1085/1102), 84.1% (90/107), and 98.3% (1085/1104), respectively. The organism load in first void urine samples that were positive for chlamydia ranged from 7.28x10(2) to 6.93x10(6) plasmids/ml and correlated significantly with the visual signal of the Chlamydia Rapid Test (r=0.7897, P<0.001).

Conclusions: The performance of the new Chlamydia Rapid Test with first void male urine samples indicates that it would be an effective diagnostic tool for chlamydial infection in men. The availability of test results within an hour allows for immediate treatment and contact tracing, potentially reducing the risks of persistent infection and onward transmission. The test could also provide a simple and reliable alternative to nucleic acid amplification assays for testing of male urine in chlamydial screening programmes in high prevalence settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: J-PM, C-EM, and HHL are equity holders in Diagnostics for the Real World, which markets the rapid test technologies developed at the University of Cambridge. Both the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust are also equity holders of the company.

Figures

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Fig 1 Recruitment and testing algorithm for study participants. PCR=polymerase chain reaction, CRT=Chlamydia Rapid Test
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Fig 2 Correlation between C trachomatis organism load determined with quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis and visual signal of Chlamydia Rapid Test for 80 urine specimens positive with polymerase chain reaction (r=0.7897, P<0.001)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sexually transmitted disease surveillance, 2006. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, November 2007.
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    1. Macleod J, Salisbury C, Low N, McCarthy A, Sterne JA, Holloway A, et al. Coverage and uptake of systematic postal screening for genital Chlamydia trachomatis and prevalence of infection in the United Kingdom general population: cross sectional study. BMJ 2005;330:940-2. - PMC - PubMed
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