Development and Laboratory Evaluation of a Quantitative Real-Time PCR Assay for Detecting Viruses and Bacteria of Relevance for Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Publication date: Available online 13 March 2015 Source:The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics Author(s): Alicia Edin , Susanne Granholm , Satu Koskiniemi , Annika Allard , Anders Sjöstedt , Anders Johansson Community-acquired pneumonia may present with similar clinical symptoms, regardless of viral or bacterial cause. Diagnostic assays are needed to rapidly discriminate between causes, because this will guide decisions on appropriate treatment. Therefore, a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) assay with duplex reactions targeting eight bacteria and six viruses was developed. Technical performance was examined with linear plasmids. Upper and lower respiratory tract specimens were used to compare the qPCR assay with standard microbiological methods. The limit of detection was 5 to 20 DNA template copies with approximately 1000-fold differences in concentrations of the two competing templates. SDs for positive controls were <5%. The use of the qPCR assay resulted in 113 positive identifications in 94 respiratory specimens compared with 38 by using standard diagnostics. Diagnostic accuracy of the qPCR assay varied between 60% positive agreement with standard tests for Streptococcus pneumoniae and 100% for Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Staphylococcus aureus. Negative percentage of agreement was >95% for M. pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, respiratory syncytial virus, and influenza A virus; whereas it was only 56% for Haemophilus influen...
Source: The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - Category: Pathology Source Type: research