Ann Lab Med.  2020 Jan;40(1):68-71. 10.3343/alm.2020.40.1.68.

Evaluating Diagnostic Tests for Helicobacter pylori Infection Without a Reference Standard: Use of Latent Class Analysis

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
  • 2Laboratory for Development and Evaluation Center, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. hkl@catholic.ac.kr
  • 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
  • 4Department of Internal Medicine, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
  • 5Department of Laboratory Medicine, Uijeongbu St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

Evaluation of diagnostic tests requires reference standards, which are often unavailable. Latent class analysis (LCA) can be used to evaluate diagnostic tests without reference standards, using a combination of observed and estimated results. Conditionally independent diagnostic tests for Helicobacter pylori infection are required. We used LCA to construct a reference standard and evaluate the capability of non-invasive tests (stool antigen test and serum antibody test) to diagnose H. pylori infection compared with the conventional method, where histology is the reference standard. A total of 96 healthy subjects with endoscopy histology results were enrolled from January to July 2016. Sensitivity and specificity were determined for the LCA approach (i.e., using a combination of three tests as the reference standard) and the conventional method. When LCA was used, sensitivity and specificity were 83.8% and 99.4% for histology, 80.0% and 81.9% for the stool antigen test, and 63.6% and 89.3% for the serum antibody test, respectively. When the conventional method was used, sensitivity and specificity were 75.8% and 71.1% for the stool antigen test and 77.7% and 60.7% for the serum antibody test, respectively. LCA can be applied to evaluate diagnostic tests that lack a reference standard.

Keyword

Helicobacter pylori; Latent class analysis; Stool antigen test; Reference standard; Serum antibody test; Diagnosis

MeSH Terms

Diagnosis
Diagnostic Tests, Routine*
Endoscopy
Healthy Volunteers
Helicobacter pylori*
Helicobacter*
Methods
Sensitivity and Specificity

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