Diagnosis of brucellosis: Combining tests to improve performance
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases·
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012442
- PMID
- 39236075
- PMCID
- PMC11407618
- OpenAlex
- W4402266164
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Improving brucellosis diagnostics supports surveillance and control efforts, especially in resource-limited settings where traditional serological methods have limitations such as low sensitivity and high false-positive rates.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study aimed to improve brucellosis diagnostic accuracy by reevaluating serological tests and exploring novel diagnostic algorithms that combine them.
Study design
A retrospective observational study analyzing sera collected between June 2012 and June 2023 at a national reference center, evaluating individual serological tests and combination algorithms.
Population and setting
Sera submitted to the French National Reference Center for Brucella between June 2012 and June 2023, including 3,587 sera with 148 confirmed human brucellosis cases.
Main findings
Individual serological tests (RBT, SAT, Brucellacapt, and ELISA for IgM/IgG) showed good sensitivity and specificity but lacked overall diagnostic accuracy. Combining RBT with SAT or Brucellacapt reduced false positives. The best-performing algorithm combined RBT, Brucellacapt, and ELISA for IgM and IgG, reaching 90.5% sensitivity, 99.7% specificity, 92.4% PPV, and 99.6% NPV at a 0.5 score threshold.
Public-health relevance
Improving brucellosis diagnostics supports surveillance and control efforts, especially in resource-limited settings where traditional serological methods have limitations such as low sensitivity and high false-positive rates.
Important limitations
No explicit limitations are stated in the abstract. This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract/metadata and requires the original paper for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
The paper is indexed under brucellosis with diagnostics, surveillance, and one-health topics; its discoverability is supported by clear diagnostic-method and disease descriptors, but no connection to a live surveillance signal is established here.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 9 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.