Comparison of two broadly multiplexed PCR systems for viral detection in clinical respiratory tract specimens from immunocompromised children

BACKGROUND: The detection of viral respiratory tract infections has evolved greatly with the development of PCR based commercial systems capable of simultaneously detecting a wide variety of pathogens. OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the relative performance of two commercial broad range systems for the detection of viral agents in clinical respiratory tract specimens from immunocompromised children. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 176 patient samples were included in the analysis, representing only the first sample collected for each patient, and excluding failed reactions. Samples were de-identified and assayed in parallel using two different, broadly multiplexed PCR systems: ResPlex™ II Panel v2.0 (ResPlex), Qiagen, Hilden, Germany and FilmArray(®) Respiratory Panel (FilmArray), Idaho Technology Inc., Salt Lake City, UT. Method comparison was based upon pair-wise concordance of results according to patient age, viral target and number of targets detected. RESULTS: The two systems showed an overall concordance, by patient, of 83.8% (p = 0.0001). FilmArray detected at least one target in 68.8% of samples, while ResPlex detected at least one target in 56.8%. ResPlex failed to detect 20.7% of FilmArray positives, and FilmArray failed to detect 4% of ResPlex positives. The relative performance of each system (including which system detected a higher number of positive samples) varied when stratified by target viral pathogen. CONCLUSIONS: Broadly multiplexed PCR is an effective means of detecting large numbers of clinically relevant respiratory viral pathogens.