A comparison of Luminex xTAG® Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (xTAG GPP) and routine tests for the detection of enteropathogens circulating in Southern China.

To investigate whether Luminex xTAG® Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel (xTAG GPP) is applicable for the diagnosis of diarrhea and surveillance of enteropathogens circulating in Southern China, 290 stool samples were tested for 15 kinds of enteropathogens using xTAG GPP and compared to the results from the routine tests, including culture; immunochromatography; real-time PCR; microscopy; and a third method, gene sequencing. One hundred fifty-nine samples were positive, yielding a total of 181 enteropathogens (69 bacteria and 112 viruses), with rotavirus being most prevalent (39.0%, 62/159). The overall sensitivity and specificity of xTAG GPP were 96.3% (93.3-98.2%) and 99.8% (99.6-99.9%), respectively, with a combination of the methods as the gold standard. The coinfection rates detected by the routine tests and xTAG GPP were 10.0% (25 double and 4 triple infections) and 12.1% (29 double, 4 triple and 2 quadruple infections), respectively. xTAG GPP is a powerful tool for the identification of multiple enteropathogens.