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. 2009 Oct;15(10):1662-4.
doi: 10.3201/eid1510.091186.

Poor clinical sensitivity of rapid antigen test for influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus

Jan Felix Drexler  1 , Angelika Helmer, Heike Kirberg, Ulrike Reber, Marcus Panning, Marcel Müller, Katja Höfling, Bertfried Matz, Christian Drosten, Anna Maria Eis-Hübinger
Affiliations

Poor clinical sensitivity of rapid antigen test for influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus

Jan Felix Drexler et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Oct.

Abstract

Influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus RNA was detected by reverse transcription-PCR in 144 clinical samples from Bonn, Germany. A common rapid antigen-based test detected the virus in only 11.1% of these samples. The paramount feature of rapid test-positive samples was high virus concentration. Antigen-based rapid tests appear unsuitable for virologic diagnostics in the current pandemic.

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Figures

Figure
Figure
Influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus variant RNA concentrations in rapid test–positive and –negative patients, Germany, 2009. Viral RNA concentration is compared between patients yielding positive and negative results in the BinaxNOW (Inverness Medical, Cologne, Germany) antigen-based rapid test. Boxplots were produced using SPSS, version 13.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). The box shows the median and interquartile range (box length). The whiskers represent an extension of the 25th or 75th percentiles by 1.5 × interquartile range. Data points beyond the whisker range are considered as outliers and marked as crosses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Rapid antigen test for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus.
    Diederen BM, Veenendaal D, Jansen R, Herpers BL, Ligtvoet EE, Ijzerman EP. Diederen BM, et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010 May;16(5):897-8; author reply 898. doi: 10.3201/eid1605.091574. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010. PMID: 20409404 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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