Comparison of Cepheid's Analyte-Specific Reagents with BD Directigen for Detection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus

For detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the BD Directigen RSV rapid antigen assay was compared to Cepheid's real-time reverse transcriptase PCR RSV analyte-specific reagents. The Directigen RSV assay resulted in a 23% false-negative rate, using PCR and chart review as the gold standard, indicating that rapid RSV PCR results would be advantageous