2.2-Viral diagnostic testing
Respiratory specimens were obtained from children within the first 48
hours after the admission and transported to the laboratory in a viral
transport medium (UTM, Copan Diagnostics, Italy). The automated nucleic
acid extraction was performed according to the manufacturer’s
recommendations using the EZ1 Virus Mini Kit v2 (Qiagen, Luxembourg).
The RT-PCR conducted on the Rotor-Gene device (Qiagen) with the FTD®
Respiratory Pathogens 21 Kit (Luxemburg) was used to detect respiratory
viruses (RSV-A/B, influenza-A/B, HRV, human coronavirus [hCoV]
NL63/229E/OC43/HKU1, PIV1-4, HMPV-A/B, HBoV, human adenovirus
[HAdV], human enterovirus [EV], and human parechovirus). The
kits and results obtained were tested using the National External
Quality Assurance Schemes (NEQUAS) External Quality Control program
(NEQUAS, Scotland).