Performance of the Verigene® enteric pathogens test, Biofire FilmArray™ gastrointestinal panel and Luminex xTAG® gastrointestinal pathogen panel for detection of common enteric pathogens.

BACKGROUND:Multiplex syndromic panels have the capability of identifying causes of diarrheal illness. This study evaluated the performance characteristics of three multiplex molecular assays for the detection of common stool pathogens. METHODS:A total of 152 stool specimens were tested using three platforms: Verigene Enteric Pathogens Test (Verigene), Biofire FilmArray Gastrointestinal Panel (Biofire) and Luminex xTAG® Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (Luminex). Assays were assessed only for the targets common among all three; namely, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), norovirus, and rotavirus. RESULTS:The sensitivities (%) and specificities (%) of the assays were: Campylobacter, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (83.3,99.3), Luminex (91.7,100); Salmonella, Biofire (95.8,100), Verigene (83.3,100), Luminex (79.2,100); Shigella, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (95.4,99.1), Luminex (100,100); STEC, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (91.7,100), Luminex (91.7,100); norovirus, Biofire (94.7,99.3), Verigene (89.0,100), Luminex (89.5,100); and rotavirus, Biofire (100, 98.6), Verigene (71.4,100), Luminex (100,100). CONCLUSIONS:All multiplex panels detected the majority of gastrointestinal pathogens when compared to conventional methods.