Objectives
To assessed the validity of the noninvasive Mission plus in estimating the prevalence of micronutrient deficiency (anemia)in Rwanda.
Methods
Blood sample were obtained for HemoCue, at the same time, the noninvasive micro plus was placed on the child’s thumb, and the Hb level was obtained within 1 min. Hb was measured in 257 children under five years (129 girls, 128 boys).
Results
The average Hb measurement obtained using the Mission plus was 10.6 g/dL, while that obtained using the HemoCue was 11.1 g/dl. The average Hb was 12.8 g/dL using Mission plus and 12.9 g/dL using the HemoCue .prevalence using HemoCue was 43.6% and 60.7% using mission plus.112 were classified as anemic using Hemocue and 156 by mission plus. Severe anemia was 0.4% by both methods. The AUROC was 0.9611 (0.93-0.98) with standard error of 0.012 using Hemocue and AUROC was 0.87(0.82-0.90) with a standard error of 0.02 with Mission plus.
Conclusions
Both performed well but none was perfect. Hemocue was more accurate than Mission Plus .Hemocue should be retained for confirmatory tests and decision regarding clinical therapies. Mission plus POCT may be used for screening for anemia in camps due to its characteristics as a rapid, fairly accurate and less costly method.
