Evaluation of the diagnostic performances of two commercially available assays for the detection of enteric adenovirus antigens

The performance of 2 antigenic commercial assays for enteric adenovirus (AdV) infection, bioNexia RotaAdeno ImmunoChromatographic Tests (ICT) and LIAISON (R) Adenovirus ChemiLuminescence Immuno Assays (CLIA), was evaluated on 321 stools from children hospitalized for acute gastroenteritis in Palermo, Italy, using a Real time-PCR (Rt-PCR) as reference method. The CLIA showed higher sensitivity (77% vs 60%), accuracy (94.4 vs 90.9) and concordance (k: 0.81 vs 0.67) with respect to ICT, despite equivalent specificity (98.8%). Using the Ct values of the Rt-PCR as a proxy of the fecal viral load, similar Ct values (mean 9.32 vs 9.89) were observed among the true positive samples, whilst a significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed in false negative samples of CLIA (mean Ct 25.68) and ICT (mean Ct 19.87). Cross-reactivity with other enteric viruses was not observed. These results indicate that both the assays tested are suitable for diagnosis of AdV gastroenteritis. (C) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.