Evaluation of two commercial enzyme immunoassays for the detection of norovirus in faecal samples from hospitalised children with sporadic acute gastroenteritis.

Two commercially available enzyme immunoassays (EIAs), IDEIA and Ridascreen, for norovirus antigen detection were evaluated with 117 faecal samples from hospitalised children with acute gastroenteritis. Eighteen of 39 samples positive by RT-PCR were characterised by sequence analysis, and 17 of these were related to norovirus genogroup II. When compared with RT-PCR, the sensitivity and specificity values were 76.9% and 85.9%, respectively, for the IDEIA assay, and 59.0% and 73.1%, respectively, for the Ridascreen assay. The sensitivity and specificity of both EIA tests require improvement, but they could both eventually be of use in the diagnosis of norovirus diarrhoea in clinical laboratories.