Clinical performance evaluation of TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel for the detection of common enteric bacterial pathogens in comparison to routine stool culture and other qPCR-based diagnostic tests
Authors: Koeffer Jasmin , Kolb Melissa , Sorel Oceane , Ulekleiv Camilla , Feenstra Jelena D. M. , Eigner Ulrich 
Published: December 2023

The use of real-time PCR-based methods for the detection of enteric pathogens in routine clinical diagnostics is slowly replacing stool culture, with open questions regarding clinical performance and ease of implementation. We evaluated the clinical and analytical performance of the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel in comparison to routine stool culture and other multiplex diagnostic tests. Clinical stool specimens (
N
= 217) from symptomatic individuals were tested using the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel and the BD MAX Enteric Bacterial Panel, while the BIOFIRE FILMARRAY Gastrointestinal (GI) Panel was used as a resolver. This analysis demonstrated that the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel had clinical sensitivity and specificity of 100.00% for both
Salmonella
spp. and
Shigella
spp./Enteroinvasive
Escherichia coli
(EIEC) and 100.00% and 98.09% for
Campylobacter
, respectively. Analytical comparison of six European conformity-in vitro diagnostic (CE-IVD) tests on contrived samples showed similar performance results. In a prospective study, we tested 500 stool samples using the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel and routine stool culture combined with
Campylobacter
antigen test. In total 26/500 samples were positive for
Campylobacter
, 2/500 for
Salmonella,
and none for
Shigella
/EIEC using the TAQPATH kit. Routine culture and antigen testing detected only 65.4% (17/26) of
Campylobacter
infections. The results obtained by the TAQPATH kit were confirmed as true positive for
Campylobacter
using two resolver methods, indicating a significantly higher clinical sensitivity over routine stool culture. Finally, we demonstrated that the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel provided shorter time-to-result (<3 h vs 2–4 days), required sevenfold less hands-on time and 7.17-fold less laboratory plastic in comparison to conventional stool culture in routine diagnostics.

IMPORTANCE

Enteric bacterial infections caused by
Salmonella, Shigella,
pathogenic
Escherichia coli
,
and Campylobacter
represent one of the most common causes of infectious enteritis worldwide. The timely and accurate diagnosis of pathogens causing gastroenteritis is crucial for patient care, public health, and disease surveillance. While stool culture has long been the standard and highly specific method for detecting enteric pathogens, it is labor-intensive and time-consuming with limited sensitivity. To improve patient outcomes, there is a need to implement new cost-effective approaches for the detection of bacterial enteric pathogens with higher sensitivity and faster time to result. This study shows that multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction-based tests, such as the TAQPATH Enteric Bacterial Select Panel, are accurate and cost-effective diagnostic alternatives for the detection and differentiation of the most common enteric bacterial pathogens, offering quicker time to result and higher sensitivity compared to routine stool culture.