Title Participants Abstract "A comparative study on indicators of vitamin A status and risk factors for sensitivity and specificity of the methods to detect vitamin A deficiency" "Ouahamin Olivier Sombie, Augustin N. Zeba, Jérome W. Somé, Adama Kazienga, Michael Grahn, Sherry A. Tanumihardjo, Stefaan De Henauw, Souheila Abbeddou" "Background Serum retinol (SR) and retinol-binding protein (RBP) are commonly used indicators, but they are affected by infections and inflammation. This study aimed to assess the sensitivity and specificity of VA indicators to detect vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in 36–59-month-old children living in a rural area in Burkina Faso. Methods In a community-based study, two cross-sectional surveys were carried out from November 2016 to September 2017 in the health district of Dandé in Burkina Faso. The surveys included 115 children 36–59 months old. Indicators of VA and inflammation assessed in all children included SR, RBP and total liver VA reserves (TLR) estimated by retinol isotope dilution, and inflammation markers (C-reactive protein (CRP) and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein (AGP)). We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values. In addition, the effects of inflammation, helminth infection, and season on sensitivity and specificity were assessed. Results The prevalence of VAD assessed by SR (" "Phase II evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of PCR and NASBA followed by oligochromatography for diagnosis of human African trypanosomiasis in clinical samples from D.R. Congo and Uganda" "E. Matovu, CM Mugasa, RA Ekangu, Stijn Deborggraeve, GW Lubega, T Laurent, GJ Schoone, HD Schallig, Philippe Büscher" "BACKGROUND: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) have been recently modified by coupling to oligochromatography (OC) for easy and fast visualisation of products. In this study we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR-OC and NASBA-OC for diagnosis of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: Both tests were evaluated in a case-control design on 143 HAT patients and 187 endemic controls from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The overall sensitivity of PCR-OC was 81.8% and the specificity was 96.8%. The PCR-OC showed a sensitivity and specificity of 82.4% and 99.2% on the specimens from DRC and 81.3% and 92.3% on those from Uganda. NASBA-OC yielded an overall sensitivity of 90.2%, and a specificity of 98.9%. The sensitivity and specificity of NASBA-OC on the specimens from DRC was 97.1% and 99.2%, respectively. On the specimens from Uganda we observed a sensitivity of 84.0% and a specificity of 98.5%. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The tests showed good sensitivity and specificity for the T. b. gambiense HAT in DRC but rather a low sensitivity for T. b. rhodesiense HAT in Uganda" "A single Xpert MTB/RIF test of sputum for diagnosis of tuberculosis and multidrug resistance shows high sensitivity and specificity and reduces diagnosis and treatment delays" "Annelies Van Rie" "Phase II Evaluation of Sensitivity and Specificity of PCR and NASBA Followed by Oligochromatography for Diagnosis of Human African Trypanosomiasis in Clinical Samples from D. R. Congo and Uganda" "Stijn Deborggraeve" "BACKGROUND: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) have been recently modified by coupling to oligochromatography (OC) for easy and fast visualisation of products. In this study we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the PCR-OC and NASBA-OC for diagnosis of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: Both tests were evaluated in a case-control design on 143 HAT patients and 187 endemic controls from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The overall sensitivity of PCR-OC was 81.8% and the specificity was 96.8%. The PCR-OC showed a sensitivity and specificity of 82.4% and 99.2% on the specimens from DRC and 81.3% and 92.3% on those from Uganda. NASBA-OC yielded an overall sensitivity of 90.2%, and a specificity of 98.9%. The sensitivity and specificity of NASBA-OC on the specimens from DRC was 97.1% and 99.2%, respectively. On the specimens from Uganda we observed a sensitivity of 84.0% and a specificity of 98.5%. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The tests showed good sensitivity and specificity for the T. b. gambiense HAT in DRC but rather a low sensitivity for T. b. rhodesiense HAT in Uganda." "Bayesian estimation of true prevalence, sensitivity and specificity of indirect ELISA, Rose Bengal Test and Slow Agglutination Test for the diagnosis of brucellosis in sheep and goats in Bangladesh" "Anisur Rahman, C Saegerman, D. Berkvens, D. Fretin, M.O. Gani, M. Ershaduzzaman, M.U. Ahmed, E.N. Abatih" "The true prevalence of brucellosis and diagnostic test characteristics of three conditionally dependent serological tests were estimated using the Bayesian approach in goats and sheep populations of Bangladesh. Serum samples from a random selection of 636 goats and 1044 sheep were tested in parallel by indirect ELISA (iELISA), Rose Bengal Test (RBT) and Slow Agglutination Test (SAT). The true prevalence of brucellosis in goats and sheep were estimated as 1% (95% credibility interval (CrI): 0.7-1.8) and 1.2% (95% CrI: 0.6-2.2) respectively. The sensitivity of iELISA was 92.9% in goats and 92.0% in sheep with corresponding specificities of 96.5% and 99.5% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity estimates of RBT were 80.2% and 99.6% in goats and 82.8% and 98.3% in sheep. The sensitivity and specificity of SAT were 57.1% and 99.3% in goats and 72.0% and 98.6% in sheep. In this study, three conditionally dependent serological tests for the diagnosis of small ruminant brucellosis in Bangladesh were validated. Considerable conditional dependence between IELISA and RBT and between RBT and SAT was observed among sheep. The influence of the priors on the model fit and estimated parameter values was checked using sensitivity analysis. In multiple test validation, conditional dependence should not be ignored when the tests are in fact conditionally dependent." "High Specificity but Low Sensitivity of Lab-on-a-Disk Technique in Detecting Soil-Transmitted Helminth Eggs among Pre- and School-Aged Children in North-Western Tanzania" "Humphrey D. Mazigo, Nyanda C. Justine, Jeffer Bhuko, Sarah Rubagumya, Namanya Samson Basinda, Maria M. Zinga, Deodatus Ruganuza, Vyacheslav R. Misko, Matthieu Briet, Filip Legein, Wim De Malsche" "An estimated 1.5 billion people are infected with soil-transmitted helminths (hookworms, Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura). These infections are targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization (WHO) by 2030, with the main interventions being mass drug administration using albendazole or mebendazole. Tanzania is one of the endemic countries; it has been implementing MDA to school-aged children for more than a decade and the infection prevalence and intensity of infection have declined. Thus, at this point, the monitoring and evaluation of infection prevalence and intensity of infections, and assessing drug efficacy is crucial and requires accurate diagnostic tests. The currently used standard diagnostic test, the Kato–Katz (KK) technique, has several limitations and the WHO is calling for the development and evaluation of new diagnostic tests. The Lab-on-a-disk (LOD) was developed and tested in the endemic areas of north-western Tanzania to evaluate its sensitivity and specificity using KK and the formol-ether concentration technique. The results showed that when using a duplicate KK slide, the LOD had a sensitivity and specificity of 37.2% (95% CI: 30.7–43.9) and 67.3% (95% CI: 63.1–71.3%). Using four KK slides as a standard technique, the overall sensitivity and specificity were 37.7% (95% CI: 33.1–42.6) and 70.7% (95% CI: 65.5–75.6). The LOD attained high specificity but low sensitivity especially in detecting eggs of Trichuris trichiura. The LOD technique has potential as a promising diagnostic test, but its sensitivity still requires improvement." "Age-stratified Bayesian analysis to estimate sensitivity and specificity of four diagnostic tests for the detection of Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts in neonatal calves" "V. De Waele, M. Berzano, D. Berkvens, Niko Speybroeck, C Lowery, GM Mulcahy, TM Murphy" "There is no gold standard diagnostic test for the detection of bovine cryptosporidiosis. Infection is usually the highest in two-week-old calves and these calves also excrete high numbers of oocysts. These factors may give rise to variations in the sensitivity and specificity of the various diagnostic tests used to detect infection in calves of varying ages. An age-stratified Bayesian analysis was carried out to determine the optimum diagnostic test to identify asymptomatic and clinical Cryptosporidium spp. infection in neonatal calves. Fecal samples collected from 82 calves at one week, two weeks, three weeks and four weeks of age were subjected to the following tests, microscopic examination of smears stained with either phenol-auramine O or FITC conjugated anti-Cryptosporidium monoclonal antibody, nested-PCR and quantitative real-time PCR. The results confirmed a high prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. infection as well as a high level of oocysts excretion in two-week-old calves. The sensitivity of all the tests varied with the age of the calves. Quantitative real-time PCR proved to be the most sensitive and specific test for detecting infection irrespective of the age of the calf. The microscopic techniques were the least sensitive and only exhibited moderate efficiency with two-week-old calves excreting large numbers of oocysts and the majority of which were diarrheic. It was concluded that, when interpreting the results of routine tests for bovine cryptosporidiosis, cognisance should be taken of the sensitivity of the tests in relation to the age of the calves and stage of infection." "Bayesian estimation of true prevalence, sensitivity and specificity of indirect ELISA, Rose Bengal Test and Slow Agglutination Test for the diagnosis of brucellosis in sheep and goats in Bangladesh" "AKM Anisur Rahman, Claude Saegerman, Dirk Berkvens, David Fretin, Md Osman Gani, Md Ershaduzzaman, Muzahed Uddin Ahmed, Emmanuel Abatih" "Screening en assessment van psychiatrische stoornissen in Belgische gevangenissen: sensiviteit en specificiteit van de BJMHS en de SSI-A [Screening and assessment of psychiatric disorders in Belgian prisons: Sensitivity and specificity of the BJMHS and SS" "Veerle Soyez, Joke De Wilde, Stijn Vandevelde, Tom Vander Beken, Sven Todts , Eric Broekaert" "Discrimination, reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of robotic surgical proficiency assessment with global evaluative assessment of robotic skills and binary scoring metrics : results from a randomized controlled trial" "Ruben De Groote, Stefano Puliatti, Marco Amato, Elio Mazzone, Alessandro Larcher, Rui Farinha, Artur Paludo, Liesbeth Desender, Nicolas Hubert, Ben Van Cleynenbreugel, Brendan P. Bunting, Alexandre Mottrie, Anthony G. Gallagher, Giuseppe Rosiello, Pieter Uvin, Jasper Decoene, Tom Tuyten, Mathieu D’Hondt, Charles Chatzopoulos, Bart De Troyer, Filippo Turri, Paolo Dell’Oglio, Nikolaos Liakos, Carlo Andrea Bravi, Edward Lambert, Iulia Andras, Fabrizio Di Maida, Wouter Everaerts, [missing] On behalf of the Junior ERUS/ YAU working group on robot-assisted surgery of the European Association of Urology and the ERUS Education Working Group. Collaborators:" "Objective: To compare binary metrics and Global Evaluative Assessment of Robotic Skills (GEARS) evaluations of training outcome assessments for reliability, sensitivity, and specificity. Background: GEARS–Likert-scale skills assessment are a widely accepted tool for robotic surgical training outcome evaluations. Proficiency-based progression (PBP) training is another methodology but uses binary performance metrics for evaluations. Methods: In a prospective, randomized, and blinded study, we compared conventional with PBP training for a robotic suturing, knot-tying anastomosis task. Thirty-six surgical residents from 16 Belgium residency programs were randomized. In the skills laboratory, the PBP group trained until they demonstrated a quantitatively defined proficiency benchmark. The conventional group were yoked to the same training time but without the proficiency requirement. The final trial was video recorded and assessed with binary metrics and GEARS by robotic surgeons blinded to individual, group, and residency program. Sensitivity and specificity of the two assessment methods were evaluated with area under the curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. Results: The PBP group made 42% fewer objectively assessed performance errors than the conventional group (P < 0.001) and scored 15% better on the GEARS assessment (P = 0.033). The mean interrater reliability for binary metrics and GEARS was 0.87 and 0.38, respectively. Binary total error metrics AUC was 97% and for GEARS 85%. With a sensitivity threshold of 0.8, false positives rates were 3% and 25% for, respectively, the binary and GEARS assessments. Conclusions: Binary metrics for scoring a robotic VUA task demonstrated better psychometric properties than the GEARS assessment."