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 Rota-Adeno ImmunoChromatographic Tests (ICT) and LIAISON® 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.