Diagnosis of gastrointestinal infections: comparison between traditional microbiology and a commercial syndromic molecular-based panel

Abstract Traditional diagnosis of infectious gastroenteritis is based on culture, microscopy and antigen detection. The development of gastrointestinal syndromic panels based on molecular techniques have allowed rapid and simultaneous identification of multiple pathogens. The objective was to evaluate the implementation of Allplex™ Gastrointestinal Panel Assays (AGPA): Allplex™ GI-Virus, Allplex™ GI-Bacteria (I) and Allplex™ GI-Parasite by comparing with traditional diagnosis. A retrospective comparative study was conducted at Hospital Universitario La Paz, between the first year of implementation of the AGPA (April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019) and the results obtained during the previous year with traditional methods (April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018). With the implementation of AGPA we obtained an increase in the detection of rotavirus and adenovirus, being statistically significant for rotavirus ([CI95%:3.60–6.79]; P < 0.05) and an increase in the positivity rates of all the bacteria tested, with the exception of Salmonella spp. ([CI95%:3.60–6.79]; P < 0.05). Comparing the bacteria recovered by culture, we obtained an increase in the case of Shigella sp