Comparison of capillary versus venous blood for the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria using rapid diagnostic tests.

We enrolled 250 febrile children in western Uganda to compare the results of malaria rapid diagnostic tests when using capillary versus venous blood. Participants were tested with four different RDT types. PCR testing was performed as the reference standard. Sensitivity and specificity were broadly similar across RDT types and sampling method. Agreement between sample type was high, ranging from 0.95 to 0.99. When following the manufacturer's recommended interpretation, only five tests would have resulted in a different clinical diagnosis. These results demonstrate that malaria RDTs perform similarly when using capillary or venous blood in febrile children with P. falciparum malaria.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.