Comparison of the fast track diagnostics respiratory 21 and Seegene Allplex multiplex polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection of respiratory viruses

AbstractBackground: Real-time multiplex PCR assays are increasingly used for respiratory virus detection, and offer automated analysis in a closed tube system, but they have the disadvantage of low-throughput due to multiplexing limitations. In this study, the established fast-track respiratory 21 assay (FTD) (fast-track diagnostics, Junglinster Luxembourg) was compared to the new Seegene Allplex assay (Seegene) (Seegene Inc. Seoul, Korea) which offers greater multiplexing as multiple targets can be detected in each fluorescence channel. The Seegene Allplex assay is quicker to perform than previous Seegene respiratory multiplex assays.Materials and methods: The assays were evaluated using 199 mostly upper respiratory tract samples.Results: A respiratory pathogen was found in 127/199 (63.8%) of samples by the FTD assay and 123/199 (61.8%) using the Seegene assay. Kappa agreement was between 0.87 and 1 for all targets except human bocavirus and adenovirus.Conclusion: Although the performance of the assays w...