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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Remote Laboratory Management: Respiratory Virus Diagnostics
Published on: April 6, 2019
BD Veritor System Respiratory Syncytial Virus Rapid Antigen Detection Test: Point-of-Care Results in Primary Care
Richard H Schwartz1, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Edward N Zissman
1From the *Department of Pediatrics, Inova Children's Hospital, Falls Church, VA; †Laboratory Medicine Section, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics; ‡School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO; and §Altamonte Pediatric Associates, Altamonte Springs, FL.
Insights
The Becton Dickinson (BD) Veritor RSV point-of-care (POC) assay showed good performance in identifying respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children. This RSV test is a reliable option for pediatric practices.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric infectious diseases
- Clinical virology
- Diagnostic assay development
Background:
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant illness in young children, presenting with non-specific symptoms.
- Differentiating RSV from other viral pathogens is challenging in primary care settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the Becton Dickinson (BD) Veritor RSV point-of-care (POC) assay.
- Compare the BD Veritor RSV POC assay performance against a reference standard (RT-PCR).
Main Methods:
- Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from 523 children under 6 years old in 8 pediatric practices.
- The BD Veritor RSV POC assay was compared to reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Main Results:
- The BD Veritor RSV POC assay demonstrated a sensitivity of 81.6% and specificity of 99.1% compared to RT-PCR.
- The assay identified more true positive RSV cases (146) than traditional viral cell culture (134).
Conclusions:
- The BD Veritor RSV POC assay is a valuable tool for diagnosing RSV in pediatric primary care settings.
- POC testing with the BD Veritor RSV assay offers an improvement over viral cell culture when RT-PCR is the reference standard.
Background:
During respiratory syncytial virus season, many children present to pediatric offices and urgent care medical facilities with cough, tachypnea, intercostal retraction, wheezing, as well as disturbed appetite and sleep. Identification of the responsible viral pathogen is quite difficult because several pathogens can produce similar signs and symptoms.
Methods:
Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from symptomatic sick children younger than 6 years, in 8 geographically representative primary care pediatric practices during a 4-month RSV season. Institutional review board approval and signed parental consent were obtained. The primary objective of the study was the estimation of the sensitivity and specificity of the Becton Dickinson (BD) Veritor RSV point-of-care (POC) assay as compared with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Results:
Of 523 specimens, 58.3% (n = 305) were from patients younger than 2 years. The BD Veritor RSV POC assay sensitivity and specificity are 81.6% (146/179) and 99.1% (341/344), respectively. When compared with RT-PCR, the BD Veritor RSV POC assay false positive was 0.9% (3/344, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.3%-2.5%) and the false negative was 18.4% (33/179, with a 95% confidence interval of 13.4%-24.5%). The BD Veritor RSV POC assay identified more true positive specimens (n = 146) than viral cell culture (n = 134 positive specimens).
Conclusions:
In 8 participating primary care pediatric offices with 523 evaluable subjects, POC BD Veritor RSV tests performed better than viral cell culture results when RT-PCR was the reference standard.
