Evaluation of colloidal gold technique in detection in influenza A and B viruses

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of using immune colloidal gold technique in the detection of influenza A/B viruses. Methods Throat swab samples from 231 child patients in our hospital were collected. Fluorescent PCR and immune colloidal gold assays were used for qualitative detection of the nucleic acids and antigens of influenza A /B viruses, respectively. The consistence , specificity and sensitivity of immune colloidal gold assays comparing to fluorescent PCR were evaluated. Results The immune colloidal gold assay showed good consistence with fluorescent PCR in detection of influenza A and B viruses, with Kappa values of 0.895, 0.924 and 0.900, respectively. By PCR, 74 cases were influenza A virus positive and 33 cases were influenza B virus positive. The immune colloidal gold assay detected 75 cases of influenza A virus and 30 cases of influenza B virus. Comparing to the PCR method, the sensitivity and the specificity of immune colloidal gold assay in detection of influenza A were 95.95% and 96.75%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference (P=1.000). The sensitivity and the specificity of immune colloidal gold assay in detection of influenza B virus were 87.88% and 99.17%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference (p=0.375). The sensitivity and the specificity of immune colloidal gold assay in detection of influenza A/B viruses were 93.46% and 95.97%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference (p=0.774). Conclusions The immune colloidal gold assay showed good consistence with fluorescent PCR in detection of influenza A/B viruses and had good sensitivity and specificity. Key words: Influenza virus; Immune colloidal gold technique; Fluorescent PCR; Consensus analysis