PEDIATRICS Vol. 101 No. 5 May 1998, pp. 813-816
Accuracy of a Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Assay for Detection of Pneumococcal Bacteremia in Children
Received Aug 11, 1997; accepted Oct 30, 1997.
, ¶,
,
From the * Division of General Academic Pediatrics, Objective. To evaluate the utility of
a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay for identifying
pneumococcal DNA in the blood of pediatric patients with suspected
bacteremia.
Methods. Children evaluated at the Children's Hospital of
Pittsburgh who were having blood drawn for culture had an additional 2 to 3 mL of blood (from the same sampling) obtained and placed in a
sodium citrate tube for PCR processing (study group). The control group
for this study consisted of children having blood drawn for biochemical
analysis who were afebrile, well-appearing, and had no recent
illnesses. Specimens were frozen at Results. Four hundred eighty study group patients and 103 controls had specimens tested by both PCR and blood culture. Twenty-six (5%) patients had a positive blood culture for a pathogenic organism (21 of which were Streptococcus pneumoniae). Twelve
(57%) of the 21 patients with blood cultures positive for S
pneumoniae also were positive by PCR. In addition, 206 study
group patients and 16 controls with negative blood cultures had
positive PCR results. A greater proportion of study group patients were
PCR-positive/culture-negative than were controls (206/459 vs 16/103).
Conclusion. Although this assay currently lacks adequate
sensitivity and specificity for clinical use, the high frequency of
PCR-positive cases in patients with suspected bacteremia may indicate a
greater role for S pneumoniae than had previously been appreciated. Further refinement of this assay as well as the
development of a rapid PCR-based assay appears warranted.
Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, and § Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the Department of Pediatrics, Eastern
Virginia Medical School and ¶ Children's Hospital of The King's
Daughters, Norfolk, Virginia.
70°C and then batch-processed
for PCR-based analyses with the JM201/202-204 primer/probe set.
Amplified products were detected after liquid hybridization format
wherein a 32P end-labeled probe was annealed to the
amplified DNA and visualized by autoradiographic analysis after gel
retardation.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Facebook 
Reddit 
Technorati 
Twitter What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  D. R. Murdoch, T. P. Anderson, K. A. Beynon, A. Chua, A. M. Fleming, R. T. R. Laing, G. I. Town, G. D. Mills, S. T. Chambers, and L. C. Jennings Evaluation of a PCR Assay for Detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Respiratory and Nonrespiratory Samples from Adults with Community-Acquired Pneumonia J. Clin. Microbiol., January 1, 2003; 41(1): 63 - 66. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Falguera, A. Lopez, A. Nogues, J. M. Porcel, and M. Rubio-Caballero Evaluation of the Polymerase Chain Reaction Method for Detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae DNA in Pleural Fluid Samples Chest, December 1, 2002; 122(6): 2212 - 2216. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A.J. Kvalsvig, D.J. Unsworth, T. Arkava, M. Luszczak, J. T. Kanegaye, and J. S. Bradley Lumbar Punctures and Meningitis Pediatrics, November 1, 2002; 110(5): 1028 - 1028. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 E D G McIntosh and R Booy Invasive pneumococcal disease in England and Wales: what is the true burden and what is the potential for prevention using 7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine? Arch. Dis. Child., June 1, 2002; 86(6): 403 - 406. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. C. McAvin, P. A. Reilly, R. M. Roudabush, W. J. Barnes, A. Salmen, G. W. Jackson, K. K. Beninga, A. Astorga, F. K. McCleskey, W. B. Huff, et al. Sensitive and Specific Method for Rapid Identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae Using Real-Time Fluorescence PCR J. Clin. Microbiol., October 1, 2001; 39(10): 3446 - 3451. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. M. Anthony, T. J. Brown, and G. L. French Rapid Diagnosis of Bacteremia by Universal Amplification of 23S Ribosomal DNA Followed by Hybridization to an Oligonucleotide Array J. Clin. Microbiol., February 1, 2000; 38(2): 781 - 788. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M L L Lorente, M Falguera, A Nogués, A R. González, M T Merino, and M R. Caballero Diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in whole blood: a prospective clinical study Thorax, February 1, 2000; 55(2): 133 - 137. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. T. Strait, K. J. Kelly, and V. P. Kurup Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha , Interleukin-1beta , and Interleukin-6 Levels in Febrile, Young Children With and Without Occult Bacteremia Pediatrics, December 1, 1999; 104(6): 1321 - 1326. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
