Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Test Said to be Good but Not Perfect

HealthDay (2/15, Edelson) reported that, according to two studies published in the journal Pediatrics, "a widely available rapid influenza diagnostic test is good, but not perfect, in determining whether a child has" either the seasonal or H1N1 flu.         MedPage Today (2/15, Neale) reported that in the first study, researchers found that "the BinaxNOW test had a sensitivity of just 45% (95% CI 43.3% to 46.3%)," whereas "the same test had a sensitivity of 62% (95% CI 52% to 70%) in a second study." Interestingly, "using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction as the reference, the sensitivity of the rapid test was higher in infants and children younger than two compared with older kids (57.6% versus 43.4%)." In newborns, "the sensitivity was 66.7%."