Table 4.
Correlation between technical aspects of assays used and the ability to obtain a maximum on each of the sub-panels
| Method | Description | No. of users | No. of sub-panels tested (%) | No. of panels tested with maximum score (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial | RV®Chip | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| In-house | 16 | 90 | 34 (56.7) | |
| Published or submitted for publication | 65 (72) | 21 (32.3) | ||
| Not described in publication | 18 (20) | 10 (55.6) | ||
| No information provided | 7 (8) | 3 (42.9) | ||
| In-house assays with practical information | 15 | 83 | 31 (37.3) | |
| Extraction | Roche—MagNApure | 3 | 17 (20.5) | 9 (52.9) |
| Roche—manual extraction kit | 5 | 28 (34) | 12 (35.7) | |
| Qiagen—extraction kit | 4 | 22 (27) | 4 (18.2) | |
| Biomeriuex—nuclisens | 2 | 9 (11) | 5 (55.6) | |
| Guardidine thiocynate/isopropanol | 1 | 7 (8) | 1 (14.3) | |
| Input: extraction | 1:>20 | 3 | 23 (28) | 5 (21.7) |
| 1:20 | 3 | 4 (5) | 1 (25) | |
| 1:10 | 6 | 39 (47) | 15 (38.5) | |
| 1:<10 | 4 | 17 (20) | 10 (59) | |
| RT enzymea | Promega | 3 | 17 (24) | 8 (47) |
| Invitrogen | 3 | 15 (21) | 7 (46.6) | |
| Qiagen | 3 | 15 (21) | 5 (33.3) | |
| Roche/ABI | 2 | 8 (11) | 1 (12.5) | |
| Not required (NASBA) | 2 | 8 (11) | 5 (62.5) | |
| No information | 3 | 7 (10) | 1 (14) | |
| Amplification | Real-time PCR | 5–8 | 35(42) | 13 (37) |
| Nested PCR | 2–6 | 27 (33) | 9 (33.3) | |
| Single PCR | 1–4 | 9 (11) | 3 (33.3) | |
| NASBA | 1–2 | 8 (10) | 5 (62.5) | |
| Reverse line blot | 1 | 4 (5) | 1 (25) | |
| Platform | ABI prism | 3 | 15 (18) | 6 (40) |
| Roche Lighcycler | 2 | 4 (5) | 1 (25) | |
| BioRad iCycler | 1 | 9 (11) | 4 (44) | |
| Nuclisens Easy-Q | 2 | 9 (11) | 5 (55.5) | |
| Corbett Rotorgene | 1 | 6 (7) | 2 (33.3) | |
| PCR Thermocycler | 6 | 40 (48) | 13 (32.5) | |
a
Manufacturer of RT enzyme, excludes adenovirus assays (four of which achieved maximum score in this assay).