Multicenter Clinical Evaluation of the Automated Aries Bordetella Assay

Molecular methods offer superior sensitivity and specificity and reduce testing turnaround time from days to hours for detection of Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the automated PCR-based Aries Bordetella Assay, which detects both B. pertussis and B. parapertussis directly from nasopharyngeal swab specimens. The limits of detection (LoDs) were 1,800 CFU·ml−1 for B. pertussis and 213 CFU·ml−1 for B. parapertussis. The assay detected 16/18 unique B. pertussis/B. parapertussis strains. Of 71 potentially cross-reacting organisms, 5 generated false positives in 1/6 replicates; none of 6 additional Bordetella spp. were erroneously detected. Specimens were stable at 20 to 25°C for at least 10 h, at 4 to 8°C for 10 days, and at temperatures not exceeding −70°C for 6 months. Of 1,052 nasopharyngeal specimens from patients with suspected pertussis, 3.0% (n = 32) were B. pertussis positive and 0.2% (n = 2) were B. parapertussis positive. Combining these data with Aries Bordetella Assay data from 57 nasopharyngeal samples with previously confirmed B. pertussis or B. parapertussis data and with data from 50 contrived B. parapertussis samples, the proportions of positive and negative agreement of the respective Aries assays with the reference assays were 97.1% and 99.0% for B. pertussis and 100% and 99.7% for B. parapertussis. The Aries Bordetella Assay provides accurate detection and distinction of B. pertussis and B. parapertussis infections within 2 h. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT02862262.)