Performance of a novel melting curve-based qPCR assay for malaria parasites in routine clinical practice in non-endemic setting

Table 3 Comparison of microscopy and MC004 assay for the quantification of parasitaemia

Parasitaemia (%) [95% confidence interval] microscopy	Parasitaemia (%) MC004 assay	Cq-value	Difference (%) (P_MC004-P_Mic)
4.2 [3.0–5.4]	2.2	16.56	− 2.0
3.5 [2.4–4.6]	1.8	16.90	− 1.7
3.1 [2.0–4.2]	2.2	16.55	− 0.9
3.1 [2.0–4.2]	1.9	16.76	− 1.2
2.8 [1.8–3.8]	2.1	16.61	− 0.7
1.8 [1.0–2.6]	0.7	18.36	− 1.1
1.3 [0.6–2.0]	0.7	18.30	− 0.6
0.4 [0.0–0.8]	< 0.1	22.13	Not applicable
0.3 [0.0–0.6]	0.8	18.17	0.5
0.3 [0.0–0.6]	0.2	20.42	− 0.1
0.2 [0.0–0.5]	0.4	19.38	0.2
0.2 [0.0–0.5]	0.2	20.42	0
0.1 [0.0–0.3]	< 0.1	22.13	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	0.1	21.25	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	0.1	21.40	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	< 0.1	21.91	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	< 0.1	23.35	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	< 0.1	24.34	Not applicable
< 0.1 [Not applicable]	< 0.1	29.04	Not applicable

MC004 parasitaemia levels outside the 95% confidence interval (determined by microscopy) are in bold [16]
P = Parasitaemia

ISSN: 1475-2875