Annals of Laboratory Medicine  2012;32(1):79-81

doi:10.3343/alm.2012.32.1.79

Evaluation of a New Immunochromatographic Assay Kit for the Rapid Detection of Norovirus in Fecal Specimens.

Kwi Sung PARK 1 ; Kyoung Ah BAEK ; Dong Uk KIM ; Kyung Sook KWON ; Sun Hye BING ; Joon Soo PARK ; Hae Seon NAM ; Sang Han LEE ; Young Jin CHOI

Affiliations

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Keywords

Immunochromatographic assay; Norovirus; Sensitivity; Specificity

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Rapid and accurate detection of norovirus is essential for the prevention and control of norovirus outbreaks. This study compared the effectiveness of a new immunochromatographic assay kit (SD BIOLINE Norovirus; Standard Diagnostics, Korea) and real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for detecting norovirus in fecal specimens. Compared with real-time RT-PCR, the new assay had sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 76.5% (52/68), 99.7% (342/343), 98.1% (52/53), and 95.5% (342/358), respectively. The sensitivity of the assay was 81.8% (18/22) for GII.3 and 75.7% (28/37) for GII.4. None of the 38 enteric virus-positive specimens (3 for astrovirus, 5 for enteric adenovirus, and 30 for rotavirus) tested positive in the cross-reactivity test performed by using this assay. The new immunochromatographic assay may be a useful screening tool for the rapid detection of norovirus in sporadic and outbreak cases; however, negative results may require confirmatory assays of greater sensitivity.