Comparison of the performance of three PCR assays for the detection and differentiation of Theileria orientalis genotypes

Table 5 Diagnostic test performance of MT PCR and Ikeda TaqMan® qPCR

Outcome	Median (95% PI) ^a
MT PCR
Diagnostic sensitivity (%)	98.0 (94.6, 99.6)
Diagnostic specificity (%)	98.9 (96.4, 99.8)
Ikeda TaqMan® qPCR
Diagnostic sensitivity (%)	97.1 (94.2, 98.8)
Diagnostic specificity (%)	97.4 (95.1, 98.8)
Estimated true prevalence
Group 1 (%)	88.1 (82.5, 93.1)
Group 2 (%)	0 (0, 0.12)
Agreement between tests
PABAK in group 1	94.0 (89.0, 97.2)
PABAK in group 2	94.1 (88.0, 97.7)
Conditional dependence between tests ^b
ρ+	0.371 (0.004, 0.764)
ρ-	0.226 (-0.006, 0.674)
Model fit
pD	7.6
DIC	28.4

The diagnostic sensitivity of the MT PCR was defined based on a cut-off of ≥ 1 DNA copies.
^aPI, probability interval.
^b ρ+ is the conditional correlation between MT and Ikeda TaqMan® qPCRs for infected animals, and ρ- is the conditional correlation for uninfected animals.
PABAK = prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted Cohen’s kappa (ĸ) statistic.
pD = effective dimension (model complexity).
DIC = Deviance information criterion, a generalisation of Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC).

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