Evaluation and comparison of the efficiency of immunochromatography methods for norovirus detection.

Background: The efficiency of a commercial immunochromatography kit (IP-NoV) was evaluated for rapid detection of norovirus in Japanese fecal specimens and its sensitivity and specificity were compared with two other commercial kits.

Methods: A total of 70 samples collected from children who suffered from acute gastroenteritis in 2009 - 2010 were tested for norovirus by three different immunochromatography kits. RT-PCR was employed as the gold standard method.

Results: The sensitivity of IP-NoV, QuickEx-Norovirus, and QuickNavi-Norovirus kits were 85.2%, 63.9%, and 55.7%, respectively. The IP-NoV kit could detect various genotypes of norovirus with higher efficiency as compared to QuickEx-Norovirus and QuickNavi-Norovirus kits. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis revealed that the majority of noroviruses circulating in Japan during 2009 - 2010 belonged to GII/4 variant 2006b and 2008a, which were responsible for the outbreaks worldwide.

Conclusions: The findings indicated that the IC kits could be used as an alternative method for direct detection of norovirus in clinical specimens covering a wide range of norovirus genotypes circulating in Japan.