Ann Lab Med.  2020 Jul;40(4):317-320. 10.3343/alm.2020.40.4.317.

Comparison Between the SFTS-QS Kit and the PowerChek SFTSV Real-time PCR Kit for the Detection of Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus

• Yoo IY
• Kim JY
• Yoon YK
• Huh HJ
• Lee NY

• KMID: 2470328
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2020.40.4.317

Abstract

The recent increase in severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) cases has led to the development of the SFTS-QS kit (MiCoBioMed, Seongnam, Korea) for detecting the SFTS virus (SFTSV, now renamed Huaiyangshan banyangvirus). SFTS-QS is a qualitative real-time reverse transcription PCR assay based on lab-on-a-chip technology. We evaluated the performance of the SFTS-QS kit and compared it with that of the PowerChek SFTSV Real-time PCR kit (PowerChek; Kogene Biotech, Seoul, Korea). A total of 117 serum samples were simultaneously assayed using the SFTS-QS and PowerChek kits. Sanger sequencing targeting the S and M segments of SFTSV was performed as the reference method. The total turnaround time of the two kits was compared. The SFTS-QS results agreed with those of PowerChek with a kappa value of 0.92. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the SFTS-QS kit were both 100% (14/14 and 103/103, respectively), whereas those of the PowerChek kit were 100% (14/14) and 98.1% (101/103), respectively. The results of SFTS-QS and PowerChek were comparable; however, the SFTS-QS kit required a shorter total turnaround time. The SFTS-QS kit produced accurate and fast results and thus could serve as a useful tool for detecting SFTSV.

Keyword

Huaiyangshan banyangvirus; SFTS virus; Performance; Turnaround time; SFTS-QS kit; PowerChek SFTSV Real-time PCR kit

MeSH Terms

Fever*
Gyeonggi-do
Methods
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction*
Reverse Transcription
Sensitivity and Specificity
Seoul
Thrombocytopenia*

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