Clinical Evaluation of the BIOFIRE SPOTFIRE Respiratory Panel.

The BIOFIRE SPOTFIRE Respiratory (R) Panel is a novel, in vitro diagnostic PCR assay with 15 pathogen targets. The runtime is about 15 min which is the shortest among similar panels in the market. We evaluated the performance of the SPOTFIRE R Panel with 151 specimens, including 133 collected from the upper respiratory tract (URT), 13 from the lower respiratory tract (LRT) and 5 external quality assessment program (EQAP) samples.

The Seasonality of Respiratory Viruses in a Hong Kong Hospital, 2014-2023.

We reviewed the multiplex PCR results of 20,127 respiratory specimens tested in a hospital setting from January 2014 to April 2023. The seasonal oscillation patterns of 17 respiratory viruses were studied. Compared with 2014-2019, a prominent drop in PCR positivity (from 64.

Olfactory Dysfunction in Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients: Observational Cohort Study and Systematic Review.

Background: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) has been reported in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, there are knowledge gaps about the severity, prevalence, etiology, and duration of OD in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: Olfactory function was assessed in all participants using questionnaires and the butanol threshold test (BTT).

An economical Nanopore sequencing assay for human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping.

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing has been employed by several European countries to augment cytology-based cervical screening programs. A number of research groups have demonstrated potential utility of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for HPV genotyping, with comparable performance and broader detection spectrum than current gold standards. Nevertheless, most of these NGS platforms may not be the best choice for medium sample throughput and laboratories with less resources and space.

Potential utility of targeted Nanopore sequencing for improving etiologic diagnosis of bacterial and fungal respiratory infection.

Background: Diversified etiology of lower respiratory tract infection renders diagnosis challenging. The mainstay microbial culture is time-consuming and constrained by variable growth requirements. In this study, we explored the use of Nanopore sequencing as a supplementary tool to alleviate this diagnostic bottleneck.