Evaluation of Alere i RSV for Rapid Detection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Children Hospitalized with Acute Respiratory Tract Infection

Peters, Rebecca Marie; Schnee, Sarah Valerie; Tabatabai, Julia; Schnitzler, Paul; Pfeil, Johannes

Alere i RSV and RT-PCR testing. Frozen NPS samples were tested in parallel by Alere i RSV versus a CE-certified RT-PCR (Altona RealStar RSV PCR kit) as a gold standard. All NPS samples used in this study were thawed only once. For Alere i RSV testing, 200 l of universal transport medium containing the NPS sample was added to the sample receiver containing 2.5 ml elution buffer. Two 100-l volumes were transferred to the test base for isothermal amplification. For the Altona RealStar RSV PCR assay, viral RNA was extracted from 140 l universal transport medium containing the NPS sample in 560 l elution buffer using the QIAamp viral RNA minikit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). RNA was eluted in a total volume of 60 l, of which 10 l was transferred to the Altona RealStar RSV PCR master mix. RT-PCR results with a C T value of Ͻ35 were considered positive.