Partial comparison of the NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel Assay with the Luminex xTAG Respiratory Panel Fast Assay V2 and singleplex real-time polymerase chain reaction for detection of respiratory pathogens

• NxTAG Respiratory Pathogen Panel Assay was developed to improve viral detection and to simultaneously identify atypical bacteria.
• NxTAG Assay has overcome some of the limitations of the previous Luminex assays.
• NxTAG Assay remains generally less sensitive and specific than singleplex real-time polymerase chain reaction.
• Further studies on more samples collected during the whole year are needed for a complete evaluation of the NxTAG Assay.

In this study, 185 nasopharyngeal swabs were tested to compare the sensitivity and specificity of the Luminex NxTAG (NxTAG) Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP) Assay with those of the Luminex Respiratory Virus Panel (RVP) Fast Assay v2 and singleplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The NxTAG Assay identified at least one infectious agent in 164 (88.7%) of the swabs. In 91 (6.2%) tests with negative results with the RVP Fast Assay v2, a virus was identified by the NxTAG (P < 0.001). With the NxTAG Assay, the detection rates were significantly higher for respiratory syncytial virus (P = 0.003), human metapneumovirus (P < 0.001), human rhinovirus/human enterovirus (P = 0.009) and human adenovirus (P < 0.001). Finally, the NxTAG Assay identified M. pneumoniae in 32 of 44 (72.7%) PCR-positive samples. However, the concordance with real-time PCR results was low for both assays. In conclusion, the results indicate that the NxTAG Assay overcomes some of the limitations of previous Luminex assays, although further studies are needed for a more complete evaluation of the new assay.