Comparison among Diagnostic Methods of Rotaviral Gastroenteritis in Children / 대한소아소화기영양학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis in children comparing with that of commercial immunoassays. METHODS: Stools from 79 children admitted Korea University Hospital due to diarrhea were collected from December 1999 to February 2000. Immunoassays were done using commercial rotavirus Latex kit and Rotatec (ELISA) kit. RT-PCR was performed to amplify group A rotavirus, most commonly pathogenic to human, using VP4- and VP7-specific primers. The detection rates of immunoassays and RT-PCR were compared. RESULTS: ELISA assay was superior to LA assay and moderately concordant with RT-PCR in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis. CONCLUSION: Although RT-PCR is known very sensitive, it does not have significant advantage over immunoassay in detecting rotaviral gastroenteritis.