Evaluation and comparison of the efficiency of immunochromatography methods for norovirus detection.

BACKGROUND

The efficiency of a commercial immunochromatography kit (IP-NoV) was evaluated for rapid detection of norovirus in Japanese fecal specimens and its sensitivity and specificity were compared with two other commercial kits.

METHODS

A total of 70 samples collected from children who suffered from acute gastroenteritis in 2009 - 2010 were tested for norovirus by three different immunochromatography kits. RT-PCR was employed as the gold standard method.

RESULTS

The sensitivity of IP-NoV, QuickEx-Norovirus, and QuickNavi-Norovirus kits were 85.2%, 63.9%, and 55.7%, respectively. The IP-NoV kit could detect various genotypes of norovirus with higher efficiency as compared to QuickEx-Norovirus and QuickNavi-Norovirus kits. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis revealed that the majority of noroviruses circulating in Japan during 2009 - 2010 belonged to GII/4 variant 2006b and 2008a, which were responsible for the outbreaks worldwide.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicated that the IC kits could be used as an alternative method for direct detection of norovirus in clinical specimens covering a wide range of norovirus genotypes circulating in Japan.