Sensitivity of three commercial tests for SARS-CoV-2 serology in children: an Italian multicentre prospective study.

Background: US Food and Drug Administration has issued Emergency Use Authorizations for hundreds of serological assays to support Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate, for the first time in children, the performance of three widely utilized SARS-CoV-2 serology commercial assays, Diesse Diagnostics (IgG, IgA, IgM) and Roche Diagnostics, both Roche Nucleocapsid (N) IgG and Roche Spike (S) IgG assays.

Methods: Sensitivity and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for each of the three different serological tests and mixed and direct comparison were performed.

Lipid molecular timeline profiling reveals diurnal crosstalk between the liver and circulation.

Diurnal regulation of whole-body lipid metabolism plays a vital role in metabolic health. Although changes in lipid levels across the diurnal cycle have been investigated, the system-wide molecular responses to both short-acting fasting-feeding transitions and longer-timescale circadian rhythms have not been explored in parallel. Here, we perform time-series multi-omics analyses of liver and plasma revealing that the majority of molecular oscillations are entrained by adaptations to fasting, food intake, and the postprandial state.

Pneumococcal DNA is not detectable in the blood of healthy carrier children by real-time PCR targeting the lytA gene.

The diagnosis of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) is currently based on culture methods, which lack sensitivity, especially after antibiotic therapy. Molecular methods have improved sensitivity and do not require viable bacteria; however, their use is complicated by reports of low specificity with some assays. The present study investigated the specificity of a real-time PCR targeting lytA for the detection of IPD.

Community‐acquired bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia in children: diagnosis and serotyping by real‐time polymerase chain reaction using blood samples.

Background: The aim of this study was to use real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on blood samples to diagnose and serotype pneumococcal infection in a large cohort of Italian children hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia.

Methods: We conducted an observational study from April 2007 through June 2009 of children aged 0-16 years with a diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia admitted to 83 pediatric hospitals in Italy.

Results: Seven hundred fifty-three children were studied.