title: Semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction enzyme immunoassay for the diagnosis of pertussis.
abstract: The two most commonly used targets for diagnosis of pertussis by the polymerase chain reaction have been the pertussis toxin promoter and the repeated insertion sequence IS481. A comparative assessment of these primers was performed on routinely collected nasopharyngeal swabs, stored at -20 C, using novel semiquantitative enzyme immunoassays. Both sets of primers behaved similarly with bacterial suspensions, and the 17 culture-positive nasopharyngeal swabs were also positive with the pertussis toxin promoter primers, with one exception, which had been subject to prolonged storage. Significantly more of the 69 culture-negative swabs were positive with the pertussis toxin promoter primers (n = 36) than with the IS481 primers (n = 18). To determine the effect of inhibitors, a comparative assessment of three primer pairs against human DNA (beta-globin and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) was also performed.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Medical Microbiology, Central Manchester Healthcare Trust, UK.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Golbang
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Brück
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Weston
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Kerr
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D014917:Whooping Cough / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA