Wang Shukun, Wu Qian, Chu Conjia, Shan Deshen, and Wu Xianhua
The diagnostic value of a single-serum Widal agglutination test (WAT) for patients with paratyphoid fever A (PA) was evaluated. 760 PA cases with a blood culture positive for Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi A (SPA)ï¼�?920 febrile patients confirmed by a blood culture negative for microbesï¼�?and 63 healthy personnel were objects of study. Adopted WAT to examine O (somatic), H (flagellum), A (flagellum) agglutinins antibodies of SPA in sera of 3 groups, obtained O, H, A agglutinins distributions and geometric mean titers in each group. Evaluated and analyzed the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, and probability ratio for the indicated patients of the WAT at different cutoff values. The O, H, A-agglutinin titers were â�?¥160 in 53%, 40%, and 51% of the blood culture positive PA cases, respectively. The O-agglutinin titers of â�?¥160 were found in 20% of the febrile controls and 3.2% of the healthy personnel, the corresponding values for H agglutinins were 17% and 4.8%, the values for A agglutinins were 16% and 1.6%, respectively. The single serum WAT could be of use for diagnosis of PA in patients who have clinical PA but are culture negative or in regions where bacterial culturing facilities are not available.
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