Multicenter evaluation of BD Veritor System and RSV K-SeT for rapid detection of respiratory syncytial virus in a diagnostic laboratory setting

The recently introduced BD Veritor System RSV laboratory kit (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA) with automatic reading was evaluated and compared with the RSV K-SeT (Coris BioConcept, Gembloux, Belgium) for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) using 248 nasopharyngeal aspirates of children younger than 6 years old with respiratory tract infection. Compared to reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction as gold standard, both tests had an identical sensitivity of 78.1% and a specificity of 96.8% and 95.8% for the BD Veritor System and RSV K-SeT, respectively. Both antigen tests can be used to reliably confirm RSV in young children. However, a negative result does not definitively exclude the presence of RSV.