Diagnostic Accuracy Among 4 Point-of-Care Tests for the Screening of HIV Infection

The aim of this study was to validate and compare 4 point-of-care (PUG) devices for the detection of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and/or HIV-2 in cryopreserved serum specimens. We analyzed 99 specimens that had tested positive for antibodies to HIV-1/HIV-2 by Western blot and 101 samples with negative test results. All the samples were analyzed by each of the 4 rapid tests. The PUG devices assessed in this study use lateral flow immunochemistry technology and provided results within 15 to 20 minutes. We obtained an average sensitivity of 97.57%, specificity of 98.77%, positive predictive value of 98.52%, and negative predictive value of 97.82%. The among-test correlation was 97.57%, and the kappa index was 0.96. Assessment of the performance of new rapid HIV tests must be regularly practiced where regular enzyme immunoassay (EIA) tests are not widely available. All 4 rapid HIV tests assessed in this study performed with acceptable accuracy.