PLoS ONE (Jan 2007)

Sensitive commercial NASBA assay for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in clinical specimen.

  • Ramona Liza Tillmann,
  • Arne Simon,
  • Andreas Müller,
  • Oliver Schildgen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001357
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 12
p. e1357

Abstract

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The aim of the study was to evaluate the usability of three diagnostic procedures for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in clinical samples. Therefore, the FDA cleared CE marked NOW(R) RSV ELISA, the NucliSENS EasyQ RSV A+B NASBA, and a literature based inhouse RT-PCR protocol were compared for their relative sensitivities. Thereby, NASBA turned out to be the most sensitive method with a total number of 80 RSV positive samples out of a cohort of 251 nasopharyngeal washings from patients suffering from clinical symptoms, followed by the inhouse RT-PCR (62/251) and ELISA (52/251). Thus, NASBA may serve as a rapid and highly sensitive alternative for RSV diagnostics.