Comparitive performance of in-house RT-PCR for NSP4 gene with a commercial enzyme immunoassay for the detection of rotavirus in stool samples of children with diarrhoea

Abstract

Rotaviruses are the most significant pathogen in the etiology of watery diarrhoea in infants and young children all over the world. Laboratory diagnosis is important both for clinical management and estimation of the disease bur-den. We collected faecal samples from 260 children under the age of five years hospitalized with acute diarrhoea and tested them for rotavirus anti-gen by Enzyme immuno assay (EIA) kit [RIDASCREEN]. RNA was also extract-ed from supernatant of 10% stool suspensions in Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) and amplified by Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for Non Structural Protein 4 (NSP4) gene. EIA was positive in 58(22.3%) samples while RT-PCR was positive in 45(17.3%) samples. Compared to EIA, RT-PCR was 77.5% sensitive and 100% specific. The Positive Predictive Value (PPV) and Negative Predictive Value (NPV) were 100% and 93.9% respective-ly. We infer that RT-PCR is a moderately sensitive but highly specific diagnos-tic test for rotavirus infection in this study.