Evaluation of the PowerChek™ Respiratory Virus Panel 1/2/3/4 for the Detection of 16 Respiratory Viruses: A Comparative Study with the Allplex™ Respiratory Panel Assay 1/2/3 and BioFire® Respiratory Panel 2.1 plus

<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Acute respiratory infections remain a major global public health concern affecting individuals across all ages. Accurate and rapid diagnosis of respiratory pathogens is crucial for effective patient management and infection control. Multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays have gained prominence over conventional methods for routine viral detection in clinical laboratories owing to their enhanced sensitivity and specificity; however, comparative performance data for PowerChek™ RVP remain limited. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the PowerChek™ Respiratory Virus Panel 1/2/3/4, which detects 16 respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, in nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) specimens. <b>Methods</b>: Overall, 336 NPS specimens were analyzed using the PowerChek™ RVP, BioFire^® RP 2.1<i>plus</i>, and Allplex™ RP assays, with nucleic acid extraction performed using the Advansure™ E3 system. The performance metrics were calculated using two-by-two contingency tables. <b>Results</b>: Among 336 NPS specimens (232 positive, 104 negative), PowerChek™ RVP detected 226 positives with minimal discrepancies, showing high concordance with BioFire^® RP 2.1<i>plus</i> (accuracy 94.6%, kappa 0.843-1.000). Fifteen discordant cases were identified in this study. Eleven could not be sequenced because of amplification failure and most had high Ct values (>30). Sequencing of four samples confirmed concordance with BioFire^® RP 2.1<i>plus</i> and PowerChek™ RVP, whereas Allplex™ RP showed false-negative results. <b>Conclusions</b>: The PowerChek™ RVP assay demonstrated a high level of relative sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, diagnostic predictive values and strong concordance with comparable reference assays in identifying its targets. This assay is a reliable and efficient diagnostic tool for clinical laboratories to facilitate the accurate identification of respiratory pathogens.