title: [Diagnostics of invasive meningococcal, haemophilus and pneumococcal disease by PCR assay].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Development of extended polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for non-culture detection of Nesseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumonie from invasive infections.
  
  
  METHODS
  A method of PCR was optimalised on strains of Nesseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae b and Streptococcus pneumonie. Detection of pathogens was evaluated on 230 samples from patiens with invasive infection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Positive results of PCR were found in 103 samples of 230 (44.7 %). The percentage of positivity was higher in CSF samples (57.0 %) than in serum (33.8 %) or blood (33.3 %) samples.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PCR method enables etiological diagnostics in cases, where antibiotic treatment was started. PCR results are available earlier than the results of cultivation. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of PCR products enables clonal analysis of etiological agents even in cases with negative results of cultivation.
authors.affiliation: National Reference Laboratory for Meningococcal Infections, National Institute of Public Health, Prague, Czech Republic, jkalm@szu.cz
authors.forename: Jitka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kalmusová
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bronská
authors.forename: Pavla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krízová
mesh_terms: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D006190:Haemophilus; D006193:Haemophilus influenzae; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial