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News in brief

A meta-analysis of 159 studies has been recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examining the accuracy of rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) in adults and children with influenza-like illness. The study, conducted by researchers from McGill University (Montreal, QC, Canada), the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Centre (Montreal, QC, Canada), revealed three key conclusions: RIDTs can confirm but not rule out diagnosis; RIDTs detect the influenza A virus better than influenza B virus; and RIDTs are more accurate in diagnosing influenza in children than adults. Current RIDTs aim to provide a faster diagnosis than that of the gold standard influenza tests, viral culture and reverse transcriptase-PCR, to improve clinical management of the disease. Madhukar Pai (Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre) and colleagues analyzed studies that compared RIDTs with a reference standard of either reverse transcriptase-PCR or viral culture. Of the 26 RIDTs evaluated, the study found sensitivity estimates to be heterogeneous, partially through the reported lower sensitivity in adults (53.9%) than children (66.6%) and higher sensitivity for influenza A (64.6%) than influenza B (52.2%). The WHO reports that worldwide, annual inf luenza epidemics result in approximately 3–5 million cases of severe illness and 250,000–500,000 deaths. Although multiple RIDTs have been produced to aid faster influenza diagnosis and reduce epidemics, the researchers of the study identified a need for the synthesis of literature on the topic into one cohesive piece. Madhukar Pai explains, “So many papers have been published, especially since the H1N1 pandemic, but no one had synthesized this body. Our hope is that this work will help in informing future guidelines on the use of these tests.”