Comparison of Enzyme Immunoassay, Immunochromatography, and RNA-PolyacrylamideGel Electrophoresis for Diagnosis of Rotavirus Infection in Children with Acute Gastroenteritis

Human rotavirus is a major etiologic agent for infantile diarrheaworldwide , it is responsible for up to 3.3 million deathsper year in children in developing countries. various rapid andsensitive techniques have been developed to readily diagnoserotavirus gastroenteritis. in the present study, we compared thesensitivity and specificity of immunochromatography andrna-polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis (page) methodswith enzyme immunoassay (eia) for diagnosis of group arotavirus infection in 200 stool samples from children youngerthan 5 years old with acute gastroenteritis. rotavirus was detectedin 57 (28.5%) samples by eia, 52 (26%) samples byicg and 52 (26%) samples by rna-page. there was nosignificant difference between the three methods (p=0.8) norbetween eia and icg (p=0.57) and eia and rna-page(p=0.57). furthermore, in comparing these methods with agevariables, the present study found that the sensitivity andspecificity of icg and rna-page compared with eia were87.7%, 98.6% and 91.2%, and 100%, respectively (p>0.05).results of the present study demonstrate that the sensitivityand specificity rates for icg and rna-page were as high aseia. it seems that all the three methods are reliable and suitablefor detection of group a rotavirus infection in childrenaffected by enteric diseases .