Detection of respiratory viral and bacterial pathogens causing pediatric community-acquired pneumonia in Beijing using real-time PCR

Zhang, Tie-Gang; Li, Ai-Hua; Lyu, Min; Chen, Meng; Huang, Fang; Wu, Jiang

The diagnostic methods that are currently used to detect respiratory infections include rapid antigen tests, virus culture, enzyme immunoassays, immunofluorescence, and conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. 12, 13 Virus culture is considered the gold standard because of its broad applicability and high specificity. However, it is time-consuming and it takes 7e12 days to obtain a positive culture. Enzyme immunoassays and immunofluorescence give rapid results, but, their relative lack of sensitivity and the availability of reactive antisera can be limiting factors. 14 Advances in conventional RT-PCR and real-time quantitative PCR assays have greatly facilitated the etiological study of respiratory infections due to their higher sensitivity and specificity. These assays can also reduce labor and cost by detecting more than one pathogen in a single reaction by using multiple probes. 15 There are several commercial multiplex assays available; such as xTAG RVP from Luminex, Multicode-PLx RVP from EraGen Biosciences, and ResPlex II from Qiagen. These assays have been used for broad spectrum detection of respiratory viruses with high cost and they are time-consuming.