Hi Marti, Thanks on behalf of CHIFA for all your contributions to this discussion through your leadership of Group B Strep International.
I was reviewing previous messages and I wanted to ask if we could review a meesage you sent previously:
https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/spotlight-group-b-strep-21-what-every-p...
In it, you said:
"Also, that culture results are considered to be 95% to 98% accurate if done < 5 weeks before delivery, but after that the negative predictive value declines."
This seems to imply that, in a term (40 week) pregnancy, the culture results are 95% to 98% accurate if done between 35 and 40 weeks. We might expect the accuracy of the test to be better at, say, 49 weeks rather than 45 weeks. Or is that not the case?
Also, 'after that the negative predictive value declines', this seems to suggest that the accuracy reduces during the period between 35 and 40 weeks, so that it is less at 37 weeks as compared with 35 weeks.
Best wishes, Neil
CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org