title: Laboratory Tests for Legionnaire's Disease.
abstract: Legionella pneumophila is one of the more recently discovered bacterial pathogens of humans. The last 2 decades have seen tremendous progress in the evolution of diagnostic tests, for detection and characterization of this pathogen and for defining the host response to infection. This has generated several diagnostic tools that span the range from simple immunologic assays to modern genome sequencing. This review describes the state of affairs of this continuously evolving field regarding the diagnosis of Legionnaire's disease and covers detection, assessment of antibiotic susceptibility, and epidemiologic characterization of isolates of L pneumophila and other pathogenic species within the genus.
authors.affiliation: Scientific Office, BioMérieux, 100 Rodolphe Street, Durham, NC 27712, USA.
authors.forename: W Michael
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Dunne
authors.affiliation: Innovation Group, Info Doc, BioMérieux, Chemin de l'Orme, Marcy-l'Étoile 69280, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Picot
authors.affiliation: Scientific Office, BioMérieux, 3, Route de Port Michaud, La Balme Les Grottes 38390, France. Electronic address: alex.vanbelkum@biomerieux.com.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Belkum
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000652:urine; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007877:Legionnaires' Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: Characterization; Detection; Diagnostics; Legionella pneumophila