title: Rotavirus infection in a tertiary hospital: laboratory diagnosis and impact of immunization on pediatric hospitalization.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Rotavirus (RV) is the main etiological agent of diarrhea in childhood; its laboratory diagnosis is crucial to guide the clinical management and prevention of its spread. RV immunization was introduced in Brazilian 6-month-old children in 2006. The present study was aimed to evaluate three methodologies used for human RV detection in stool samples obtained from patients hospitalized due to gastroenteritis in a teaching hospital and report the impact of RV immunization in hospitalization by diarrhea.
  
  
  METHODS
  293 stool samples collected in the 2001-2008 period were analyzed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA), latex agglutination (LA) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rotavirus was detected in 34.8% of samples by LA assay, 28.3% of samples by EIA assay and in 25.6% of samples by PAGE assay. Considering the PAGE method as gold standard, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of EIA were 94.6%, 94.4% and 94.5%, and to LA were 82.6%, 81.6% and 81.9%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that antigen detection by EIA is a rapid, sensitive and specific method, and could be used in large-scale applications for screening stool samples suspected of RV infection. This study showed decreased incidence of RV infection in hospitalized children prior to the implementation of the national immunization program against RV.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luciane Aparecida
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Sonia Mara
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Raboni
authors.forename: Meri B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Nogueira
authors.forename: Luine R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.forename: Sergio Monteiro de
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Debur
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cruz
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology*; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D015994:Incidence; D007841:Latex Fixation Tests; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012400:Rotavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D022243:Rotavirus Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D022243:Rotavirus Vaccines