Evaluation of the Seeplex® Meningitis ACE Detection Kit for the Detection of 12 Common Bacterial and Viral Pathogens of Acute Meningitis

Shin, So Youn; Kwon, Kye Chul; Park, Jong Woo; Kim, Ji Myung; Shin, So Young; Koo, Sun Hoe

The detection sensitivity was the highest for GBS [lower limit of detection (LoD) of 5 genomes/mL] and the lowest for HI (LoD of 57 genomes/mL). The LoDs for HEV, EBV, VZV, HSV-2, HHV-6, NM, CMV, SP, HSV-1, and LM were 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 16, 19, 38, and 51 genomes/mL, respectively. The analytical sensi-tivities for all the 12 target pathogens were higher than the 100 copies per reaction stated by the manufacturer. No cross-reaction was evident with human genomic DNA and other reference strains. The Seeplex Meningitis-V2 ACE Detection kit successfully differentiated all the 19 HEV species from the other strains. CSF samples were obtained from 78 patients at the time of diagnosis of active meningitis and before administration of antibiotic treatment. Among these samples, 44 (56.4%) yielded positive results with the Seeplex kit (Table 3 ). Five cases (6.4%) showed positive results for HEV (4) and HSV-1 (1), which were consistent with the results of conventional studies. However, in 2 cases the results were not consistent with the results of conventional studies. One was positive for both LM and EBV in Seeplex Meningitis ACE detection kit, but positive only for LM in the conventional study; the other tested positive for HEV in Seeplex Meningitis ACE detection kit but positive for VZV in the conventional study. Each case presented a bacterial and a viral features, respectively in CSF analysis.