Evaluation of the Aries Bordetella Assay for Detection and Identification of Bordetella pertussis in Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens

The Aries assay (Aries BA) (Luminex Corporation) recently received FDA clearance for the detection and differentiation of and nucleic acids in nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) samples. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Aries BA in comparison to that of the BioFire FilmArray respiratory panel (RP). The Aries BA was evaluated using retrospective, remnant nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS), previously tested by FilmArray RP. Performance characteristics evaluated included positive percent agreement (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA) with the FilmArray RP. Discordant analysis was performed using bidirectional sequencing. A time and motion study was performed to compare the laboratory workflow of the two tests. Three hundred samples were included in the study. There were no samples positive for The PPA and NPA of the Aries BA were 61.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 35.8 to 82.7%) and 100% (95% CI, 98.7 to 100%). Discordant results included five results that were incorrectly identified as by the FilmArray RP and one false-negative result for both the Aries BA and the FilmArray RP. The overall agreement between the Aries BA and FilmArray RP for the detection of was considered good at 97.7% with a kappa value of 0.71 (95% CI, 0.51 to 0.9). The Aries BA offers a new diagnostic option for the rapid and targeted approach to the diagnosis of pertussis. Unlike the FilmArray RP, the Aries BA did not cross-react with in our study, although a larger sample set should be tested to confirm this finding.