Performance of the Verigene® enteric pathogens test, Biofire FilmArray™ gastrointestinal panel and Luminex xTAG® gastrointestinal pathogen panel for detection of common enteric pathogens

Background: Multiplex syndromic panels have the capability of identifying causes of diarrhea] illness. This study evaluated the performance characteristics of three multiplex molecular assays for the detection of common stool pathogens. Methods: A total of 152 stool specimens were tested using three platforms: Verigene Enteric Pathogens Test (Verigene), Biofire FilmArray Gastrointestinal Panel (Biofire) and Luminex xTAG (R) Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (Luminex). Assays were assessed only for the targets common among all three; namely, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), norovirus, and rotavirus. Results: The sensitivities (%) and specificities (%) of the assays were: Campylobacter, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (83.3,99.3), Luminex (91.7,100); Salmonella, Biofire (95.8,100), Verigene (83.3,100),,Luminex (79.2,100); Shigella, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (95.4,99.1), Luminex (100,100); STEC, Biofire (100,100), Verigene (91.7,100), Luminex (91.7,100); norovirus, Biofire (94.7,99.3), Verigene (89.0,100), Luminex (89:5,100); and rotavirus, Biofire (100, 98.6), Verigene (71.4,100), Luminex (100,100). Conclusions: All multiplex panels detected the majority of gastrointestinal pathogens when compared to conventional methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.