Title | Age-related prevalence of common upper respiratory pathogens, based on the application of the FilmArray Respiratory panel in a tertiary hospital in Greece. | ||
Author | Tsagarakis, Nikolaos J; Sideri, Anthi; Makridis, Panagiotis; Triantafyllou, Argyro; Stamoulakatou, Alexandra; Papadogeorgaki, Eleni | ||
Journal | Medicine (Baltimore) | Publication Year/Month | 2018-Jun |
PMID | 29851817 | PMCID | PMC6392546 |
Affiliation | 1.Central Laboratories, Hygeia General Hospital, Athens, Greece. |
The FilmArray Respiratory Panel (FA-RP) is an FDA certified multiplex PCR that can detect 17 viruses and 3 bacteria responsible for upper respiratory tract infections, thus it is potentially useful to the assessment of the age-related prevalence of these pathogens.In this observational study, we retrospectively analyzed the results of all the respiratory samples, which had been processed during 1 year-period (November 2015 to November 2016) with the FA-RP, in the Central Laboratories of Hygeia & Mitera General Hospitals of Athens, Greece. In order to have an age-related distribution, the following age groups were implemented: (<2), (>/=2, <5), (>/=5, <10), (>/=10, <18), (>/=18, <45), (>/=45, <65), and (>/=65) years old.Among 656 respiratory samples tested, 362 (55%) were from male and 294 (45%) from female patients, while 356 (54.3%) were positive and 300 (45.7%) negative. In the first age-group (<2), 41/121 samples (33.9%) revealed human rhinovirus/enterovirus (HRV) and 16 (13.2%) adenovirus (Adv), followed by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), coronavirus, human metapneumovirus (Hmpv), and parainfluenza viruses (PIV). In the age-group (>/=2, <5), Adv predominated with 37/147 samples (25.2%), followed by HRV, RSV, coronavirus (all types), and influenza, Hmpv and PIV. In the age-group (>/=5, <10), HRV was identified in 25/80 samples (31.3%), Adv in 18 (22.5%), influenza in 11 (13.8%), and Hmpv in 6 (7.5%). Influenza predominated in the age-group (>/=10, <18), with 4/22 samples (18.2%), while in the remaining age-groups (>/=18), HRV was the commonest isolated pathogen, 33/286 (11.5%), followed by influenza with 20 (7%) (influenza A H1-2009, 11/20).In our patient series, HRV seemed to prevail in most age-groups, followed by Adv, although Influenza was the second most frequent pathogen isolated in the age-groups (>/=18). Moreover, increasing age corresponded to increasing possibility of having a negative sample, indicating that FilmArray may be more useful before adolescence.