by Caicedo Díaz RA, Forsyth C, Bernal OA, Marchiol A, Beltrán Duran M, Batista C, Herazo R, Vera MJ, Pachon E, Valencia-Hernández CA, Flórez Sánchez AF. International Journal of Infectious Diseases 2019 (87), 100:108. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2019.07.022
Summary: Complicated diagnostic processes are a major barrier to diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease. Colombia’s previous diagnostic algorithm used in-house tests and was difficult to scale up. A new algorithm using commercially manufactured immunoassays would potentially improve access, but the performance of these tests in Colombian patients was not well known. The authors therefore assessed seven commercially available assays using 501 samples, 93.8% of which originated from Colombia, and found that several commercial assays accurately detect T. cruzi infection in these patients. A simplified testing process with two commercial assays, a total antigen ELISA paired with a recombinant assay, could perform comparably to the previous process, reducing cost and accessibility barriers, and facilitating national scale-up.
