Evaluation of the Performance Characteristics of a New POC Multiplex PCR Assay for the Diagnosis of Viral and Bacterial Neuromeningeal Infections
Open accessAbstract
Point-of-care syndromic PCR (POC SPCR) assays are useful tools for the rapid detection of the most common causative agents of community-acquired infections responsible for meningitis and encephalitis infections. We evaluated the performance characteristics of the new QIAstat-Dx® Meningitis/Encephalitis panel (QS) compared to the laboratory reference methods and the POC SPCR Biofire® FilmArray® Meningitis Encephalitis Panel (FA). Viral (Enterovirus, Parechovirus, HSV-1, HSV-2, HHV-6, VZV) and bacterial (E. coli K1, H. influenzae, L. monocytogenes, encapsulated N. meningitidis, M. pneumoniae, S. agalactiae, S. pneumoniae, S. pyogenes) pathogens were suspended at low concentrations and tested with the POC SPCR systems. The reproducibility, analytical specificity, carryover contamination, interferences and clinical samples were evaluated. All samples tested positive with both QS and FA except for those containing the lowest concentrations of Enterovirus-D68-B3, Echovirus-30 and S. agalactiae which were only detected by FA. In terms of analytical specificity, we observed 3 false positive results out of 48 QS tests versus 1 out of 37 FA tests. For the other studied criteria, both QS and FA performed as expected. Our results suggest that the performance characteristics of QS are close to those of FA. A prospective multicenter study would be useful to complete the performances evaluation of QS.
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The QIA/ME is not able to detect the lowest loads of E-30 and EV-D68-B3 types.
“in particular, the QIA/ME is not able to detect the lowest loads of E-30 and EV-D68-B3 types [15].”
From Performance Evaluation of Multiplex Molecular Syndromic Panel vs. Singleplex PCR for Diagnosis of Acute Central Nervous System Infections (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
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“Given the large number of types in EV family, a less efficient detection of some of them is reported; in particular, the QIA/ME is not able to detect the lowest loads of E-30 and EV-D68-B3 types [15].”
- Authors
- Le Bars, H., Madany, N., Lamoureux, C., Beauruelle, C., Vallet, S., Payan, C., & Pilorgé, L.
- Affiliations
- Unity of Bacteriology, Department of Bacteriology-Virology-Parasitology-Mycology-Hygiene, Pole of Biology-Pathology, University Hospital of Brest, F-29200 Brest, France
- Unity of Virology, Department of Bacteriology-Virology-Parasitology-Mycology-Hygiene, Pole of Biology-Pathology, University Hospital of Brest, F-29200 Brest, France
- Inserm (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Pilorgé, Léa
- Venue
- Diagnostics
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-03-15
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1110
- ISSN
- 2075-4418 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10047878
- OpenAlex
- W4324385595
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 2.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Diagnostics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Clinical Biochemistry › Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Bacterial Infections and Vaccines
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Biosensors and Analytical Detection
- Keywords
- point-of-care PCR, multiplex PCR, meningitis, encephalitis, FilmArray Meningitis/Encephalitis panel, viral pathogens, pathogenic bacteria, herpes simplex virus, enterovirus, Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus pyogenes, assay evaluation, analytical specificity, carryover contamination
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