title: Performance of 2 commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction assays for the detection of Aspergillus and Pneumocystis DNA in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples from critical care patients.
abstract: This article investigates the performance of 2 commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays, MycAssay™ Aspergillus (Myc(Asp)Assay) and MycAssay™ Pneumocystis (Myc(PCP)Assay), on the ABI 7300 platform for the detection of Aspergillus (Asp) or Pneumocystis jirovecii (Pj) DNA in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples from 20 patients. Operationally, patients enrolled were clustered into 3 groups: invasive aspergillosis group (IA, 7 patients), Pj pneumonia group (PCP, 8 patients), and negative control group (5 patients). All the IA patients were Myc(Asp)Assay positive, whereas 12 non-IA patients returned negative PCR results. Furthermore, 7 of 8 PCP patients were Myc(PCP)Assay positive, while 9 non-PCP patients were PCR negative. In conclusion, these data provide an early indication of the effectiveness of both the Myc(Asp)Assay and Myc(PCP)Assay on the ABI 7300 platform for the detection of either Asp or Pj DNA in BAL from patients with deep fungal infections.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze di Sanità Pubblica, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlotta Francesca
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Orsi
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gennari
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Venturelli
authors.forename: Annunziata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: La Regina
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pecorari
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Righi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Machetti
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blasi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001228:Aspergillosis / Q000382:microbiology; D001230:Aspergillus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001992:Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / Q000382:microbiology*; D003422:Critical Care; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058889:Molecular Typing / Q000379:methods*; D011010:Pneumocystis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011020:Pneumonia, Pneumocystis / Q000382:microbiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal