Comparison Of Bd Max Gbs And Genomera Gbs Assays For Rapid Intrapartum Pcr Detection Of Vaginal Carriage Of Group B Streptococci

ObjectiveTo compare the diagnostic performance of BD MAX and GenomEra PCR assays for a rapid PCR detection of vaginal carriage of group B streptococci at delivery.MethodsThis is a retrospective laboratory analysis of vaginal swab samples taken intrapartum from a randomly selected cohort of pregnant women giving birth at a single childbirth and maternity unit.ResultsNinety-one culture-positive and 279 culture-negative vaginal samples were included from a cohort of 902 women. One-hundred-and-two specimens were found positive with the BD MAX and 84 with the GenomEra PCR assay. No statistically significant difference was observed compared to culture, sensitivity of BD MAX 84.6% (77/91) [95%)/X175.5-91.3] and of GenomEra 71.4% (65/91) [95%)/X161.0-80.4]. When compared to a combined reference standard, no statistically significant differences were seen between culture, BD MAX and GenomEra PCR assays. The sensitivities were 82.7% (91/110) [95%)/X174.3-89.3], 87.3% (96/110) [95%)/X179.6-92.9], and 79.1% (87/110) [95`)/X170.3-86.3], respectively.ConclusionBoth PCR assays performed comparably to culture of the intrapartum vaginal samples. In particular, the GenomEra assay is potentially an easy and rapid on-site PCR test for intrapartum detection of vaginal carriage of group B streptococci at a maternity ward to identify women who should receive intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis.