Comparison on application effects of antigen rapid method and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR method in detection of influenza virus

Zhuang Jinfeng

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-7151.2025.02.019

Abstract：Objective To compare the application effects of antigen rapid method and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(RT-qPCR)method in detection of influenza virus.Methods The 1 984 samples of respiratory nasal/pharyngeal swab in Sanming Center for Disease Control and Prevention from October 2023 to October 2024 were collected,and influenza virus was detected using antigen rapid method and RT-qPCR method,respectively.Using RT-qPCR as"gold standard"method,the consistency between antigen rapid method and RT-qPCR method was analyzed using Kappa test,and the sensitivity and specificity of antigen rapid method were calculated.Results Out of 1 984 respiratory tract samples,347 samples were detected as positive for influenza virus using RT-qPCR method,with a positivity rate of 17.49%.Among them,231 samples were detected for influenza A(detectable rate of 11.64%),114 samples were detected for influenza B(detectable rate of 5.75%),and two samples were mixed for influenza A and B(detectable rate of 0.10%).The difference in detectable rates of three groups of influenza was statistically significant(P<0.05).The specificity and sensitivity of antigen rapid method for detecting influenza virus in 1 984 samples were 99.51%and 87.90%,respectively.Using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR method as"gold standard",the κ value for detecting influenza virus of antigen rapid method was 0.909,indicating high consistency between the two methods.There was no statistically significant difference in detectable rate between RT-qPCR and antigen rapid methods in male and female patients(male:17.60%vs.15.42%;female:17.37%vs.15.32%;both P>0.05).The detectable rate of influenza virus in the population under 6 years old was relatively high.The detectable rates of influenza A virus by RT-qPCR and antigen rapid methods were 12.71%and 11.94%,respectively,and the detectable rates of influenza B virus were 6.28%and 5.82%,respectively.The differences in detectable rates between the two methods were not statistically significant(both P>0.05).Conclusions The consistency between antigen rapid method and RT-qPCR method for detecting influenza virus is high.The antigen rapid method has a convenient detection operation,which could ensure a certain detection efficiency while reducing detection costs and expanding the detection range.However,the sensitivity still needs to be improved.The final diagnosis results should be based on the detection result of RT-qPCR method.Its high sensitivity and specificity could provide more effective assistance for early and accurate screening of influenza virus.