Multicenter clinical evaluation of the novel Alere™ i Influenza A&B isothermal nucleic acid amplification test

Background: Rapid detection of influenza infection is important for patient management and timely antiviral therapy. Rapid antigen detection tests for influenza have inferior sensitivity when compared to nucleic acid-based amplification tests. An isothermal nucleic acid amplification test that offers the potential for rapid molecular testing at the clinical point-of-care with simple equipment can improve influenza detection rates. Objectives: To evaluate the performance of Alere (TM) i Influenza A&B isothermal nucleic acid amplification test to detect influenza A and B in comparison to viral cell culture as reference method. Study design: A prospective, multicenter, clinical study to evaluate the clinical performance of the Alere (TM) i Influenza A&B assay in a point-of-care setting using prospectively enrolled specimens from both children and adults was conducted in seven sites. Results: In comparison with viral cell culture, the overall sensitivity and specificity of the Alere (TM) i Influenza A&B assay was 97.8% and 85.6% for the detection of influenza A, and 91.8% and 96.3% for the detection of influenza B, respectively. Following resolution of discrepant results by real-time RT-PCR the sensitivity and specificity of the Alere (TM) i Influenza A&B assay improved to 99.3% and 98.1% for influenza A, and 97.6% and 100% for influenza B, respectively. Conclusions: The Alere (TM) i Influenza A&B isothermal nucleic acid amplification test is an ideal point-of-care test for influenza detection in children and adults due to its high sensitivity and specificity and ability to generate results within 15 min from specimen receipt. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.