A survey strategy for human respiratory syncytial virus detection among haematopoietic stem cell transplant patients: epidemiological and methodological analysis

Abstract

Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) causes severe infections among children and immunocompromised patients. We compared HRSV infections among Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant program (HSCT) patients and children using direct immunofluorescence (DFA), point-of-care RSV Bio Easy® and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Overall, 102 samples from HSCT patients and 128 from children obtained positivity rate of 18.6% and 14.1% respectively. PCR sensitivity was highest mainly on samples collected after five days of symptoms onset. A combination of both DFA and reverse transcriptase-PCR methods for HSCT high-risk patients is the best diagnostic flow for HRSV diagnosis among these patients.

Fig. 1. comparison of human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) de tection using three different techniques: direct immunofluorescence assay (DFA), immunochromatographic point-of-care RSV Bio Easy(r) assay (PC) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in paediatric and human stem cell transplant patients (HSCT) patients. NA: not available; +: positive; -: negative; /: results were not found in the other possible combinations.

Fig. 2. distribution of the respiratory syncytial virus detection for the paediatric group and the human stem cell transplant patients (HSCT) group by assay according to the time of symptom onset until sample collection. DFA: direct immunofluorescence assay; PC: immuno chromatographic point-of-care RSV Bio Easy(r) assay; RT-PCR: re verse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction.