Comparing Luminex NxTAG‐Respiratory Pathogen Panel and RespiFinder‐22 for multiplex detection of respiratory pathogens

Beckmann, Christiane; Hirsch, Hans H.

Respiratory tract infection (RTI) involves a variety of viruses and bacteria, which can be conveniently detected by multiplex nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT). To compare the novel Luminex‐based NxTAG‐Respiratory Pathogen Panel (NxTAG‐RPP) with the routine multiplex‐ligation‐NAT based RespiFinder‐22® (RF‐22), 282 respiratory specimens including nasopharyngeal swabs (71%), broncho‐alveolar lavage (27%), throat swabs, tracheal secretions, and sputum (2%) from 116 children and 155 adults were extracted using a Corbett CAS1200 (Qiagen), and analyzed in parallel by the routine RF‐22 and NxTAG‐RPP. Concordant results were obtained in 263 (93.3%) cases consisting of concordant positives in 167 (59.2%) and concordant negatives in 96 (34%). Results were discordant in 19 (6.7%) consisting of 15 positive:negative, and 4 negative:positive results by NxTAG‐RPP versus RF‐22, respectively. Co‐infections were observed in 10.3% with NxTAG‐RPP and in 5.9% with RF‐22. Most additional viral pathogens identified by the NxTAG‐RPP involved dual infections with rhinovirus and RSV. Discordant samples were mainly due to low genome signals of C(t) less than 36, when retested by QNAT suggesting a higher sensitivity of the NxTAG‐RPP, also when detecting multiple infections. Hands‐on time after extraction for 24 and 96 samples was 0.25 and <0.5 hr for the NxTAG‐RPP, and 2 and 4 hr for the RF‐22, respectively. The median turn‐around time was 6 hr (range 5–7 hr) for NxTAG‐RPP and 12 hr (range 8–16 hr) for RF‐22. The NxTAG‐RPP showed comparable detection rates for most respiratory pathogens, while hands‐on and turn‐around time were considerably shorter. The clinical significance of detecting multiple viruses needs further clinical evaluation. J. Med. Virol. 88:1319–1324, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.