Comparison between Aptima Assays (Hologic) and the Allplex STI Essential Assay (Seegene) for the diagnosis of Sexually transmitted infections

PLoS One. 2019 Sep 12;14(9):e0222439. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222439. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain a worldwide problem and a severe threat to public health. The purpose of this study was to compare Aptima® Assays (Hologic®) and the Allplex™ STI Essential Assay (Seegene®) for the simultaneous detection of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis and Mycoplasma genitalium in clinical practice. The Aptima® assays (Hologic®) are based on a transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) method. The Allplex™ STI Essential assay (Seegene®) is based on a multiplex Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) method. A total of 622 clinical samples from different anatomical sites were tested using both methods. A total of 88 (14.1%) and 66 (10.6%) positive samples were found for any of the TMA assays used and for the RT-PCR assay, respectively. Aptima® assays showed a slightly higher rate of positive results for all pathogens except for T. vaginalis, the results of which were similar to those obtained with Allplex™. The most commonly detected pathogen was C. trachomatis (37 samples; 5.9% using TMA assays) and the anatomical site with the highest prevalence of microorganisms was a non-urogenital site, the pharynx (27 positive samples; 4.3%). Using the Aptima® assays as reference method, the comparison showed that the average specificity of multiplex RT-PCR was 100.0% for the four pathogens. However an average sensitivity of 74.5% was observed, showing 95.2% (CI95%; 93.6-96.9) of overall concordance (κ = 0.80). In conclusion, the Aptima® assays show a higher sensitivity on a wide range of sample types compared to the Allplex™ assay.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Chlamydia Infections / diagnosis
  • Chlamydia trachomatis
  • Female
  • Gonorrhea / diagnosis
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods*
  • Mycoplasma Infections / diagnosis
  • Mycoplasma genitalium
  • Neisseria gonorrhoeae
  • Prevalence
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases / diagnosis*
  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Spain
  • Trichomonas Vaginitis / diagnosis
  • Trichomonas vaginalis
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.9159746.v2

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.