Low Detection Rate of Bordetella pertussis Using the BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel 2 plus

Sophie Guillot; Assaf Mizrahi; Nathalie Armatys; Laureen Chat; Alban Le Monnier; Sylvain Brisse; Julie Toubiana

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaa267

Low Detection Rate of Bordetella pertussis Using the BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel 2 plus

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Jul 2;7(8):ofaa267. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa267. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Authors

Sophie Guillot^{1

2}, Assaf Mizrahi^{3

4}, Nathalie Armatys^{1

2}, Laureen Chat³, Alban Le Monnier^{3

4}, Sylvain Brisse^{1

2}, Julie Toubiana^{1

2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
² National Reference Center for Whooping Cough and Other Bordetella Infections, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
³ Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Saint Joseph Hospital, Paris, France.
⁴ Institut Micalis, UMR1319, Université Paris-Saclay, INRAe, AgroParisTech, Bactéries Pathogènes et Santé, Chatenay-Malabry, France.
⁵ General Paediatrics and Paediatric Infectious Diseases Department, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, APHP, Université de Paris, Paris, France.

Abstract

Syndromic respiratory panels are increasingly used worldwide. Their performance for detection of Bordetella pertussis needs to be evaluated. We found that the FilmArray Respiratory Panel 2plus (RP2+) assay, which uses the pertussis toxin promoter target for B. pertussis, can only detect highly charged samples. Negative RP2+ results should not be interpreted as an absence of B. pertussis in clinical samples.

Keywords: Bordetella pertussis; FilmArray respiratory panel; molecular diagnosis; whooping cough.