Comparison of Luminex NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel and xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel FAST Version 2 for the Detection of Respiratory Viruses

Lee, Chun Kiat; Lee, Hong Kai; Ng, Christopher Wei Siong; Chiu, Lily; Tang, Julian Wei-Tze; Loh, Tze Ping; Koay, Evelyn Siew-Chuan

Of the 142 clinical samples tested, 131 had concordant results, 60 and 71 of which were negative and positive, respectively. The 11 discordant samples containing metapneumovirus, enterovirus/rhinovirus, coronavirus 229E, and eight influenza A/ H3N2 viruses tested positive in the laboratory-developed RVP assay and thus, were considered true positives (Table 1) . The overall concordance rate between the two Luminex assays was 92.3% (131/142) with a Cohen's kappa coefficient of 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.757-0.932), indicating a substantial degree of agreement. Of the discordant samples, the xTAG RVP FAST v2 missed eight influenza A/H3N2 viruses and one coronavirus 229E, while the NxTAG RPP missed one enterovirus/ rhinovirus and one metapneumovirus. On the basis of the CAP results, both NxTAG RPP and xTAG RVP FAST v2 correctly identified all the pathogens in the samples tested.