Comparison of the Directigen Flu A+B Test, the QuickVue Influenza Test, and Clinical Case Definition to Viral Culture and Reverse Transcription-PCR for Rapid Diagnosis of Influenza Virus Infection

Performance of rapid influenza testing in hospitalized children

“…Specifically, the detection of influenza infection presenting with both fever and cough was observed to have sensitivities ranging between 64 and 86%, specificities between 55 and 67%, and PPVs ranging between 48 and 87% [5,6,19,20]. This contrasts other studies which reported that no clinical signs or symptoms are specific for influenza virus infection [21,22].…”

Virus-inducible reporter genes as a tool for detecting and quantifying influenza A virus replication

“…Direct, rapid antigen detection techniques have been developed to reduce the time and complexity of viral diagnosis (Storch, 2003;Uyeki, 2003). Although they have the potential to become standard methodology, some questions exist about the sensitivity and reliability of the tests (Landry and Ferguson, 2003;Ruest et al, 2003). Finally, nucleic acidbased techniques such as real time multiplex PCR (Ellis and Zambon, 2002;Yang and Rothman, 2004) or microarrays (Kessler et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2002) can provide specific, sensitive and rapid diagnosis of clinical samples but are expensive and require significant expertise.…”

“…The availability of antiviral drugs has resulted in an increased need for rapid techniques that can reliably diagnose influenza infection (Ruest et al, 2003;Storch, 2003).…”

Randomised controlled trial and health economic evaluation of the impact of diagnostic testing for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection on the management of acute admissions in the elderly and high-risk 18- to 64-year-olds

“…With PCR as the gold standard, viral culture carried out at the UHL NHS Trust laboratory had a sensitivity of just 21.6% (95% CI 13.5% to 31.6%), which, although similar to the sensitivity reported by the Portuguese national surveillance network, during the 7-year period 1992-93 to 1998-99, 146 is suboptimal in comparison with sensitivities of 61-96% reported in nine studies 90,91,[147][148][149][150][151][152][153] (Table 24) that were identified for the systematic review and meta-analysis of POCTs for influenza (see Chapter 6). However, the sensitivity of viral culture was similar to that of the Quidel POCT (24.4%, 95% CI 16% to 34.6%).…”