title: Simultaneous detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae by nested PCR amplification from cerebrospinal fluid samples.
abstract: Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae are often the cause of serious diseases such as meningitis. We designed a nested PCR assay to identify these pathogens from cerebrospinal fluid samples. The first-step PCR was able to detect eubacterial rRNA genes with a unified set of universal primers. In the second-step PCR, the identification primers, HI I and II and SP I and II, could detect H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae respectively through amplification of the rRNA spacer between the 16S and 23S rRNA genes. We suggest that the two-step PCR assay can be used as a novel method for the immediate and retrospective diagnosis of bacterial meningitis caused by H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saruta
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsunaga
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kono
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoshina
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kanemoto
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Machida
mesh_terms: D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006193:Haemophilus influenzae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016920:Meningitis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000302:isolation & purification*