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Comparative Study
. 2012 Oct;50(10):3216-21.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.00538-12. Epub 2012 Jul 18.

Respiratory virus detection in immunocompromised patients with FilmArray respiratory panel compared to conventional methods

Sarah P Hammond  1 , Lisa S Gagne, Shannon R Stock, Francisco M Marty, Rebecca S Gelman, Wayne A Marasco, Mark A Poritz, Lindsey R Baden
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Respiratory virus detection in immunocompromised patients with FilmArray respiratory panel compared to conventional methods

Sarah P Hammond et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2012 Oct.

Abstract

Respiratory virus infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Timely diagnosis is needed to provide optimal clinical care. Diagnostic tests routinely available at most institutions are limited by poor sensitivity and a slow turnaround time. We collected 90 respiratory samples from 87 immunocompromised patients (56 bronchoalveolar lavage and 34 nasopharyngeal aspirate samples) in order to compare the performance of routine respiratory virus testing available at our institution to the FilmArray respiratory panel assay, a novel diagnostic tool which utilizes multiplex PCR to test for 21 respiratory pathogens with a 1-h turnaround time. Samples with discordant results and 13 samples with concordant results underwent further verification testing by laboratory-developed real-time PCR. The FilmArray assay identified viral pathogens in more samples than did clinical testing (30/90 versus 16/90; McNemar P = 0.001). Most of the additional viral pathogens identified by the FilmArray respiratory panel assay that were confirmed by verification testing were pathogens not assessed by routine clinical tests, including rhinovirus/enterovirus, human metapneumovirus, and coronavirus. The FilmArray respiratory panel assay allowed for increased identification of respiratory viral pathogens in this cohort of immunocompromised patients.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Respiratory virus testing results for tests routinely available at DFCI/BWH and the FilmArray RP panel, including the numbers of pathogens and percentages of the total. (A) Results for routine testing at DFCI/BWH for all samples (n = 90). (B) Results for FilmArray RP assay for all samples (n = 90). “Coinfection” includes one sample with RSV and coronavirus and another with HMPV and rhinovirus. (C) Results for routine testing at DFCI/BWH for NPA samples (n = 34). (D) Results for FilmArray RP assay for NPA samples (n = 34). “Coinfection” includes one sample with RSV and coronavirus and another with HMPV and rhinovirus.
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