Shingles Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Shingles, including details on symptoms, treatment, causes, virus.

Comparative evaluation of the QIAGEN QIAsymphony(®) SP system and bioMérieux NucliSens easyMAG automated extraction platforms in a clinical virology laboratory.

Lee AV, Atkinson C, Manuel RJ, Clark DA

Department of Infection (HPA Lead Microbiology Laboratory for London), Barts and The London NHS Trust, London, E1 2ES, UK.

BACKGROUND: The QIAGEN QIAsymphony(®) SP is an automated system that can process a variety of different sample types for nucleic acid extraction. OBJECTIVES: To compare this system against the bioMérieux NucliSens easyMAG using a range of common clinical sample types. STUDY DESIGN: Nucleic acid extracts were tested on 6 in-house real time viral PCR assays: quantitative cytomegalovirus (CMV); respiratory and enteric multiplex (10 viruses); influenza A H1N1 2009 specific H1 and N1 assays (sH1/N1); herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1, HSV 2 and varicella zoster virus (VZV) multiplex; norovirus genogroups I and II (Noro GI/II) multiplex. RESULTS: Extraction of the clinical sample by either QIAsymphony(®) SP or NucliSens easyMAG gave similar results for each PCR; CMV viral loads, 52 plasma samples had a mean difference (easyMAG-QIAsymphony(®)) of 0.002log(10)copies/ml (s.d. 0.536), 52 whole blood samples had a mean difference of -0.232log(10)copies/ml (s.d. 0.490). Concordance for the qualitative assays were; 64/67 (95.5%) for the respiratory and enteric multiplex, all 28 (100%) for the sH1, sN1 and influenza A matrix multiplex, 33/34 (97%) for the HSV1/HSV2/VZV multiplex and all 15 (100%) for the Noro GI/II. Inter- and intra-run variation, determined for a 10-fold dilution series of CMV (5.20-3.20log(10)copies/ml), was less than 0.63log(10)copies/ml. CONCLUSIONS: Our evaluation found the performance of the QIAsymphony(®) SP comparable to the NucliSens easyMAG for a range of sample types commonly extracted in a clinical virology laboratory. In total, 331/343 (96.5%) PCR results were concordant on samples extracted by both platforms.

Published 21 October 2011 in J Clin Virol.
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Articles on Shingles published 17 October 2011:

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