Key result
Rapid influenza immunoassay kits demonstrated diagnostic sensitivities of 103 to 103.5 TCID50/ml for pandemic H1N1 viruses, proving useful for preliminary screening despite lower sensitivity than RT-PCR.
Why the study?
Do rapid influenza immunoassay kits accurately detect pandemic influenza H1N1-2009 viruses compared to real-time RT-PCR in patients with flu-like syndrome?
Cross-Sectional (n=105)
Do rapid influenza immunoassay kits accurately detect pandemic influenza H1N1-2009 viruses compared to real-time RT-PCR in patients with flu-like syndrome?
Rapid influenza immunoassay kits are less sensitive than real-time RT-PCR but remain useful for preliminary bedside screening of critically ill patients during a pandemic.
May inform preliminary pandemic screening strategies; leaves open need for prospective validation against RT-PCR.
The success of therapeutic measures is predicted on the basis of rapid and precise diagnosis of infection. A comparison of three rapid influenza immunoassay (RIIA) kits, the Directigen Flu A+B test, QuickVue influenza A+B test and the Quick S-INFLU A.B, for detection of pandemic influenza H1N1 (2009) viruses, have been made on 105 patients with flu like syndrome. The sensitivity, specificity and ability to screen influenza type A and B viruses were evaluated. The clinical specimens detected positive by real-time RT-PCR for pandemic influenza H1N1 (2009) viruses and the reference influenza strain [A/PR/8/34 (H1N1)] were cultured in MDCK cells to determine TCID50 and the performance of kits were compared against the current gold standard, real-time RT-PCR. The diagnostic sensitivity of Directigen kit was 103 TCID50/ml where as the QuickVue and Quick S-INFLU A.B were 103.5 TCID50/ml in case of the pandemic H1N1 viruses which was comparable to the reference H1N1 virus (103 TCID50/ml for QuickVue and Directigen and 103.5 TCID50/ml for Quick S-INFLU A.B). Our findings suggest that although RIIA kits are not as sensitive as the conventional and real-time RT-PCR yet they are very useful in preliminary bedside screening of large number of critically ill patients during pandemic situation.
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Kumar et al. (2010) conducted a cross-sectional in flu like syndrome (n=105). Rapid influenza immunoassay (RIIA) kits vs. real-time RT-PCR was evaluated on diagnostic sensitivity. Rapid influenza immunoassay kits demonstrated diagnostic sensitivities of 103 to 103.5 TCID50/ml for pandemic H1N1 viruses, proving useful for preliminary screening despite lower sensitivity than RT-PCR.
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