IMMUNOCHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD FOR ROTAVIRUS DETECTION PROVIDES GOOD ACCURACY IN DIAGNOSIS OF ROTAVIRUS DIARRHEA IN CHILDREN

Rotavirus infections are a major cause of diarrhea in children under 5 years in both the developed and developing countries. Goldstandard diagnostic method for rotavirus diarrhea is RT-PCR but it is expensive and longtime. Immunochromatography is a newdiagnostic method that is fast, easy and cheap but the variation in diagnostic accuracy is still very wide in various countries. Theobjective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the immunochromatography method as compared to RT-PCR method in thediagnosis of rotavirus diarrhea in children. Cross-sectional study was conducted in children aged 1-60 months with acute diarrheahospitalized at gastroenterology ward Dr. Soetomo Hospital on January until June 2014. Patients, who had received rotavirusimmunization 1 month before the test, were excluded from this study. Immunochromatography method was using BD Rota/AdenoExamine™ stick (Beckton Dickinson Japan Co., Ltd.). Identification of rotavirus by RT-PCR was performed at the Institute ofTropical Disease (ITD), Airlangga University. Sensitivity, and specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value(NPV) and likelihood ratio (LH) were calculated for the immunochromatography method. A total of 80 children were included.Thesensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and LH of immunochromatography respectively were 77.6%, 63.6%, 84.9%, 51.85% and 2.13. Inconclusion, immunochromatography method for rotavirus detection provides good accuracy in diagnosis of rotavirus diarrhea inchildren. (FMI 2015;51 142-148)