Evaluation of new immunochromatographic assay kit for adenovirus detection in throat swab: Comparison with culture and real-time PCR results

A new immunochromatographic (IC) assay kit, BD Veritor System Adeno was evaluated to comparing with commercial available kit, BD Adeno Examan, cell culture, and real-time PCR using throat swab samples. Specimens were collected from 146 pediatric patients between July 2011 and January 2012. Mean age of patients was 4 years (8 months-15 years old). Patients were diagnosed with pharyngitis (n = 67), tonsillitis (n = 45), pharyngoconjunctival fever (n = 26), upper respiratory tract infection (n = 6), conjunctivitis (n = 1), or bronchitis (n = 1). Thirty-one of the patients (21.2%) had more than one disease. Among all samples, 61(41.8%) were positive for adenovirus with BD Veritor System Adeno; 68 (46.6%) with BD Adeno Examan; 63 (43.2%) with real-time PCR; and 65 (44.5%) with cell culture. Serotype 3 (n = 41; 63.1%) was predominant among the 65 adenovirus isolates, followed by serotype 2 (n = 12; 18.5%), 1 (n = 6; 9.2%), 5 (n = 4; 6.2%), and 4 (n = 2; 3.1%). Relative sensitivity and specificity of BD Veritor System Adeno, BD Adeno Examan, and real-time PCR were 93.8% and 98.7%, 96.9% and 93.8%, and 96.9% and 100%, respectively. Positive predictive and negative predictive values for these methods were 98.4% and 95.1%, 92.6% and 97.4%, and 100% and 97.6%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of real-time PCR was greater than that of IC assay kits. However, IC assay kits also showed high sensitivity and specificity appropriate for clinical use. (C) 2014, Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.