Evaluation of the analytical and clinical performance of two RT-PCR based point-of-care tests; Cepheid Xpert® Xpress CoV-2/Flu/RSV plus and SD BioSensor STANDARD™ M10 Flu/RSV/SARS-CoV-2.

Background: Rapid and accurate detection of viral respiratory infections is important for infection control measures. This study compares the analytical and clinical performance of the Xpert® Xpress CoV-2/Flu/RSV plus test ("Xpert", Cepheid) and the STANDARD™ M10 Flu/RSV/SARS-CoV-2 test ("M10", SD Biosensor). Both tests are quadruplex RT-PCR assays for rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, influenza A/B and RSV.

Epidemiology of gastrointestinal infections: lessons learned from syndromic testing, Region Zealand, Denmark.

The aim of this study was to investigate the value of syndromic diagnostic testing for a better understanding of the epidemiology of gastrointestinal infections in Denmark. Here we evaluated the QIAstat-Dx® Gastrointestinal (GI) Panel 1 assay on 18,610 fecal samples requested for analysis for enteric pathogens in Region Zealand, Denmark, in 1 year (October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022). In total, 6905 (37%) samples were detected positive for one or more diarrhoeal bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.

Verification of analytical bacterial spectrum of QIAstat-Dx® GI V2 and Novodiag® Bacterial GE+ V2-0 diagnostic panels.

Background: Implementing multiplex PCR or syndromic panel-based testing platforms to detect microbial species that cause acute diarrhoea may guide patient management more effectively and efficiently.

Objectives: To assess and compare the performance of two syndromic panel-based testing systems, QIAstat-Dx® Gastrointestinal Panel V2 (QGI) and the Novodiag® Bacterial GE+ V2-0 (NGE).

Methods: The QGI and NGE panels include 16 and 14 bacterial gastrointestinal pathogens, respectively.

Recommendations for the introduction of metagenomic high-throughput sequencing in clinical virology, part I: Wet lab procedure.

Metagenomic high-throughput sequencing (mHTS) is a hypothesis-free, universal pathogen detection technique for determination of the DNA/RNA sequences in a variety of sample types and infectious syndromes. mHTS is still in its early stages of translating into clinical application. To support the development, implementation and standardization of mHTS procedures for virus diagnostics, the European Society for Clinical Virology (ESCV) Network on Next-Generation Sequencing (ENNGS) has been established.

Evaluation of Xpert MRSA Gen 3 and BD MAX MRSA XT for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcusaureus screening in a routine diagnostic setting in a low-prevalence area.

Screening and pre-emptive isolation of at-risk patients are important aspects of the Danish approach to the prevention of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcusaureus (MRSA) infection, but screening with conventional culture can take up to 3 days for results to become available with attendant costs and disadvantages of prolonged isolation. We sought to evaluate the accuracy, time to availability of results and potential economic benefits of two next-generation MRSA screening assays, Xpert MRSA Gen 3 (GX MRSA) and BD MAX MRSA XT, in a setting of a consolidated laboratory serving a number of hospitals with a low prevalence of MRSA and using enrichment culture as a reference method. Four hundred and forty-seven screening samples together with 49 previously positive MRSA samples were evaluated.

Characterization of HIV-1 from patients with virological failure to a boosted protease inhibitor regimen.

The use of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) regimens with unboosted protease inhibitors (PIs) has resulted in a high level of virological failure primarily due to the development of resistant virus. Current boosted PI regimens combine successfully low-dose ritonavir (r) with a second PI. The aim of the study was to estimate the proportion of patients, in a population based setting, who develop virological failure on a PI/r regimen.

Seventeen-year-old mother-to-child HIV type 1 transmission identified by phylogeny and signature patterns.

A case, in which the clinical suspicion of perinatal HIV transmission of a newly diagnosed 17-year-old woman was supported by the phylogenetic analyses of pol sequences obtained for routine resistance testing and further substantiated by analyses of gag and env, is described.

Short communication: high prevalence of drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in treatment-naïve patients in Greenland.

A molecular epidemiologic study of HIV-1 in Greenland showed distinct transmission clusters correlated with demographic and behavioral data. Resistance mutations were found in a majority of the pol sequences. The objective of the present study was to estimate prevalence of drug resistance in Greenland and identify transmission chains by comparing resistance data with phylogeny and treatment history.

Reappearance of an 11-year-old sequence in an HIV-1 infected patient during treatment interruption.

HIV-1 from a patient with multi-drug resistant virus was identified as wild type during treatment interruption. The aim of the study was to describe how the viral population is affected by treatment interruptions and use phylogeny to reconstruct the evolutionary pattern. 15 samples covering 13 y and 2 treatment interruptions were analysed in both pol and env.