![]() ![]() ![]() Simpler tests might be amenable to point-of-care use in settings such as emergency rooms. Thus, although total individual test time is short, the hands-on involvement for the operator over the test interval is high. However, these tests generally require multiple processing steps and the addition of reagents. The rapid tests that are now widely used have shown moderately good sensitivity and specificity in studies published primarily in the early 1990s ( 3, 4, 8, 9, 11). Rapid RSV diagnosis may also be important for therapeutic reasons, although the benefits of ribavirin treatment are unclear ( 1). Infection control strategies that include rapid diagnostic tests have been shown to be cost effective for this reason ( 6). Rapid diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in infants and children requiring hospital admission can help prevent nosocomial RSV transmission ( 5, 6, 7), since RSV-infected patients can be either assigned to private rooms or cohorted with other children infected with the same virus. QuickLab testing is also simpler to perform and interpret than both DFA and DIR testing. We conclude that the QuickLab RSV test has sensitivity similar to that of the DFA assay and better than that of the DIR assay. The results of DIR testing were initially uninterpretable and required retesting with 15% of the specimens compared to 3% of QL results ( P < 0.001). DFA was more sensitive than DIR ( P < 0.001) but not more sensitive than QuickLab ( P = 0.45). QuickLab was significantly ( P = 0.02) more sensitive than DIR the difference in specificities was not significant. DFA results were considered the “gold standard.” For 133 nasopharyngeal aspirates tested, DFA results were 77 (57.8%) positive, 47 (35.3%) negative, and 9 (6.8%) indeterminate. We compared QuickLab to the Directigen RSV (DIR) assay, which requires six reagents, and direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) testing. We evaluated a new rapid lateral-flow RSV immunoassay, the QuickLab RSV test, that requires use of only one reagent. Rapid respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) diagnosis is vital to the prevention of nosocomial RSV infections. ![]()
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