Viral agents causing lower respiratory tract infections in hospitalized children: evaluation of the Speed-Oligo® RSV assay for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the viral agent which is more frequently involved in lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in infants under 1 year of age in developed countries. A new oligochromatographic assay, Speed-Oligo® RSV, was designed and optimized for the specific detection and identification of RSV subtypes A and B. The test was evaluated in 289 clinical samples from 169 hospitalized children using an immunochromatography (IC) test, virus isolation by culture, and an in-house real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Other viruses causing LRTIs were investigated by cell culture or PCR-based tests. Sixty-two patients were infected by RSV (36.7%). In addition, adenovirus, influenza B, parainfluenza 2, and human metapneumovirus were detected in rates ranging from 5 to 8%. A proportion of 10.1% of the patients had mixed infections. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were, respectively, 94.9, 99.4, 98.9, and 97.4% for Speed-Oligo® RSV, 92.9, 96.3, 92.9, and 96.3% for RT-PCR/RSV, and 58.4, 98.1, 93.3, and 82.6% for IC. Our rates of viral detection and co-infection were similar to those of previously reported series. Finally, we find that Speed-Oligo® RSV is a rapid and easy-to-perform technique for the detection of RSV and the identification of subtypes A and B.

Viral aetiology and clinical outcomes in hospitalised infants presenting with respiratory distress

“…Recent studies suggest that infections with viruses others than RSV can present with similar clinical findings . However, the literature contains few studies that evaluate parallel diagnostic methods in combination with detailed description of virus‐specific clinical features in infants.…”

Use of rapid human respiratory syncytial virus strip tests for detection of bovine respiratory syncytial virus in experimentally vaccinated calves

“…These were chosen based on previous evaluations of various immunochromatographic tests used in the diagnostics of HRSV (Gregson et al 2005, Selvarangan et al 2008, Miernyk et al 2011, Sán-chez-Yebra et al 2012. Although all of these showed generally lower sensitivity compared to the recommended laboratory diagnostic methods, their high specificity, low cost, simplicity and short time required for testing (Gregson et al 2005, Miernyk et al 2011, Sánchez-Yebra et al 2012) mean that these tests can be used as complementary tests in HRSV diagnostics. Moreover, all of these tests were specific to highly conservative proteins of pneumoviruses, which theoretically should also make detection of BRSV possible.…”

“…The specificity of all of these assays was equally high and reached a level of 97-98%, whereas diagnostic sensitivity differed considerably for each of them and amounted to 58% for TRU RSV, 72% for BinaxNOW and 91% for RSV Respi-strip (Wybo et al 2009, Miernyk et al 2011, Sánchez-Yebra et al 2012.…”

“…Nasopharyngeal washes are described as a recommended specimen for immunchromatographic tests (Selvarangan et al 2008) and previous evaluations were done based on this type of sample (Wybo et al 2009, Miernyk et al 2011, Sánchez-Yebra et al 2012). However, due to the fact that collection of nasal washes from animals could be complicated, we decided to use nasal swabs as they are much easier to obtain in field conditions.…”