Using group testing in a two-phase epidemiologic design to identify the effects of a large number of antibody reactions on disease risk
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Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2022-12-16
Type of Work
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Citation of Original Publication
Mehta, T., Malinovsky, Y., Abnet, C.C. et al. Using group testing in a two-phase epidemiologic design to identify the effects of a large number of antibody reactions on disease risk. BMC Med Res Methodol 22, 324 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-022-01798-0
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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Public Domain Mark 1.0
Subjects
Abstract
Background: The role of immunological responses to exposed bacteria on disease incidence is increasingly under
investigation. With many bacterial species, and many potential antibody reactions to a particular species, the large
number of assays required for this type of discovery can make it prohibitively expensive. We propose a two-phase
group testing design to more efciently screen numerous antibody efects in a case-control setting.
Methods: Phase 1 uses group testing to select antibodies that are diferentially expressed between cases and controls. The selected antibodies go on to Phase 2 individual testing.
Results: We evaluate the two-phase group testing design through simulations and example data and fnd that it
substantially reduces the number of assays required relative to standard case-control and group testing designs, while
maintaining similar statistical properties.
Conclusion: The proposed two-phase group testing design can dramatically reduce the number of assays required,
while providing comparable results to a case-control design.
Keywords: Case-control studies, Epidemiologic design, Group Testing, Prevalence estimation