[Performance of Cholera-SMART and Pathogen-Detection-Kit in the quick diagnosis of cholera].

Objectives: To compare the performance of two rapid systems for the diagnosis of cholera with the culture method, and to propose a strategy for improving the specificity and sensitivity of these systems and reducing the costs involved in making a diagnosis.

Methods: The following institutions participated in the study: the National Bacteriology Referral Center (Centro Nacional de Referencia en Bacteriologia, CNRB) of the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (Instituto Costarricense de Investigacion y Ensenanza en Nutricion y Salud, INCIENSA) and various hospitals in the provinces of Alajuela, Guanacaste and San Jose, in Costa Rica. A total of 237 feces samples were used to asses the performance of two tests for the rapid detection of Vibrio cholerae 01: the Pathogen Detection Kit (PDK, Intelligent Monitoring Systems, Gainesville, Florida, USA) and Cholera-SMART (New Horizons Diagnostics Corp.