Sensitivity and Specificity of an All-in-one Cartridge-based Dengue Real-time Reverse Transcription-PCR for Point-of-care Detection and Serotyping of Dengue Virus in Samples from Indonesian Patients

Abstract

Background: : Dengue is a systemic, viral, mosquito-borne infection that continues to be a major public health issue in endemic regions in tropical and subtropical climates. Accurate tests for rapid diagnosis in point-of-care settings are important to reduce the fatality rates of severe dengue. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of the Standard M10 DENV 1-4 system (SD Biosensor, Gyeonggi, Korea), which is a cartridge-based, automated system that integrates nucleic acid extraction, reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) amplification, and detection of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes.

Methods: : This was a retrospective diagnostic evaluation study. The index test, Standard M10 DENV 1-4, was evaluated using 320 dengue-positive and 279 dengue-negative archived samples. The reference tests were a combination of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) DENV 1-4 real-time RT-PCR, dengue NS1 antigen and IgM antibody detection, and DENV whole-genome sequencing.

Results: : The overall sensitivity and specificity of Standard M10 DENV 1-4 were 94% and 100%, respectively. By serotype, the highest sensitivity was 100% for DENV-1, and the lowest was 82% for DENV-4. The overall between the CDC RT-PCR dengue serotyping method and the Standard M10 DENV 1-4 was 95%. Standard M10 DENV 1-4 RT-PCR had comparable sensitivity and specificity to CDC DENV RT-PCR.

Conclusions: : Based on its commensurate performance to an established RT-PCR method combined with additional benefits of convenient storage and transport, easy use, and rapid processing, the Standard M10 DENV 1-4 system has potential for DENV detection and serotyping in point-of-care settings.

Keywords: Dengue; Diagnostic accuracy; Point-of-Care testing; Sensitivity; Specificity.