Despite excellent test characteristics of the cobas®4800 CT/NG assay, detection of oropharyngeal Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae remains challenging
Objectives : Oropharyngeal Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and especially Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) infections are common but few commercial nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) specify extragenital samples as intended use. The test characteristics of the cobas®4800 CT/NG assay are evaluated for oropharyngeal swabs. Methods: The technical validation includes analysis of the specificity, sensitivity, dynamic range, linearity, efficiency and precision. The probability of detection curve combined with historical data enables estimation of potentially missed diagnoses. A clinical evaluation has been performed on a subset of 2798 clinical samples available from routine diagnostics. Results of the cobas®4800 were compared with in-house CT/NG PCR assays. Discrepant samples were tested with resolver assays and these results were considered decisive. Results: No cross-reactivity was seen in the analytical specificity analysis. High linearity (≥0.983 R2), efficiency (89%-99%), and precision (0.1-0.9 Ct-value) were seen for both CT/NG. The limit of detection in oropharyngeal samples was 3.2x102 IFU/mL for CT and 6.7x102 CFU/mL for NG. Estimates on potentially missed diagnoses were up to 7.2% for CT and up to 24.7% for NG. Clinical sensitivity and specificity were evaluated with 25 CT, 86 NG positive and 264 negative samples, resulting in 100% and 99.6% for CT and 100% and 96.7% for NG respectively. Conclusion: The findings in this study demonstrate the utility of the cobas®4800 CT/NG assay for oropharyngeal samples. Despite being a highly accurate test, the range of reported Ct-values especially for NG suggest relatively low oropharyngeal loads. Hence, consistent detection over the full range of oropharyngeal loads could be impaired.