A lower respiratory tract infection study tested the BinaxNOW and Urine Antigen Detection assays to detect a common antigen from all pneumococcal strains and the 13 pneumococcal serotypes present in the vaccine Prevenar 13.

In this study, the research team performed the first studies that combined BinaxNOW S. pneumonia and UAD tests for identification of pneumococcal infection in urine samples. The primary aims were to evaluate the percentage of S. pneumoniae SLRTI among the overall SLRTIs cases and to evaluate the percentage of serotype specific S. pneumoniae SLRTI using the serotype specific UAD.

The researchers performed a clinical trial (OPUS-B) consisting of a multicenter, prospective, case-controlled, observational study of patients with SLRTI in primary care in Belgium, conducted during the winter period of  2011 and 2013. Urine samples were collected for the BinaxNOW and UAD assays, and the clinicians were blinded to the results.

Overall, the research team found that S. pneumonia was the cause for about 5% of SLRTIs observed in primary care in Belgium. The infection by Pneumococcal was associated with a significant increase in morbidity, where 68% of serotypes causing SLRTI were potentially preventable by PCV13.

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