title: Comparison of a conventional polymerase chain reaction with real-time polymerase chain reaction for the detection of neurotropic viruses in cerebrospinal fluid samples.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare a conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR for the detection of neurotropic DNA viruses.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 147 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples was collected from patients attending a tertiary care hospital in South India for a period from 2005 to 2008. All these samples were tested using a conventional multiplex/uniplex PCR and a real-time multiplex/uniplex PCR. This technique was used to detect a large number of herpes viruses responsible for central nervous system infections, including HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, CMV and EBV and the polyoma virus JCV.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, in the entire set of samples, the real-time PCR yielded 88 (59.9%) positives and conventional PCR had six (4.1%) positives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that the real-time PCR assay was more sensitive compared with the conventional PCR. The advantage of real-time PCR is that it can be performed much faster than conventional PCR. Real-time PCR is less time-consuming, less labour-intensive and also reduces the chance of contamination as there is no post-amplification procedure. In the entire study population, the major viruses detected using real-time PCR were EBV (34%), HSV-2 (10.8%) and VZV (6.8%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632 004, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramamurthy
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aaron
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kannangai
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ravi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sridharan
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abraham
mesh_terms: D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000821:virology*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007577:JC Virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014773:Virology / Q000379:methods*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology