Evaluation of the Alere I influenza A&B nucleic acid amplification test by use of respiratory specimens collected in viral transport medium.

The Alere i Influenza A&B assay is a newly developed rapid molecular assay which has the potential to generate results within 15 min from sample collection. In this study, we evaluated the Alere i Influenza A&B assay by using salvaged frozen respiratory specimens that were collected in viral transport medium from children ages 10 months to 19 years. Alere i Influenza A&B assay test results were compared with viral culture and ProFlu(+) real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay results. We found that the overall sensitivity and specificity of the Alere i Influenza A&B assay were 93.3% and 94.5% for the detection of influenza A virus and 100% and 100% for the detection of influenza B virus, respectively, compared to viral culture. In comparison to ProFlu(+) real-time RT-PCR, overall sensitivity and specificity of the Alere i Influenza A&B assay for the detection of influenza A virus were 88.8% and 98.3% and 100% and 100% for detecting influenza B virus. Overall, the Alere i Influenza A&B assay performed well compared to either virus cell culture or RT-PCR.