I Sciandra1, L Piccioni2, L Coltella2, S Ranno2, G Giannelli1, F Falasca3, G Antonelli3, C Concato2, O Turriziani4. 1. National Institute of Gastroenterology "S. de Bellis", Research Hospital, Castellana Grotte, Italy. 2. Virology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Rome, Italy. 3. Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. 4. Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: ombretta.turriziani@uniroma1.it.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to compare the performance of 2 recently introduced molecular tests for the identification of gastrointestinal viral infections. METHODS: One hundred fecal samples from pediatric patients were analyzed using 2 workflows, each including nucleic acids extraction and multiplex Real-Time PCR: Allplex™ GI-Virus Assay and FTD Viral gastroenteritis. The agreement was evaluated calculating Cohen's kappa and applying McNemar's test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Allplex and FTD assays showed 100% overall agreement for Norovirus GI/GII and Sapovirus (κ: 1.00), and 99% for Astrovirus (κ: 0.66). A lower agreement was detected for Adenovirus (89%; κ: 0.72) and Rotavirus (91%, k: 0.53), owing to samples resulted positive only with FTD test. The discrepancies were attributed to a different efficiency of extraction/amplification and to the different Adenovirus serotype specificity of the tests since Allplex detects only AdVF40 and AdVF41. FTD test should be used when non enteric adenovirus could have a clinical significance.
OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to compare the performance of 2 recently introduced molecular tests for the identification of gastrointestinal viral infections. METHODS: One hundred fecal samples from pediatric patients were analyzed using 2 workflows, each including nucleic acids extraction and multiplex Real-Time PCR: Allplex™ GI-Virus Assay and FTD Viral gastroenteritis. The agreement was evaluated calculating Cohen's kappa and applying McNemar's test. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Allplex and FTD assays showed 100% overall agreement for Norovirus GI/GII and Sapovirus (κ: 1.00), and 99% for Astrovirus (κ: 0.66). A lower agreement was detected for Adenovirus (89%; κ: 0.72) and Rotavirus (91%, k: 0.53), owing to samples resulted positive only with FTD test. The discrepancies were attributed to a different efficiency of extraction/amplification and to the different Adenovirus serotype specificity of the tests since Allplex detects only AdVF40 and AdVF41. FTD test should be used when non enteric adenovirus could have a clinical significance.