Novel Diagnostics in Revision Arthroplasty: Implant Sonication and Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction.

In orthopedic patients, foreign body-associated infections, especially periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs), are a devastating complication of arthroplasty. Infection requires complex treatment, may result in long hospitalization and causes considerable costs. Multiple surgical revisions can be necessary in these patients, with a loss in function as well as in quality of life. The routine preoperative diagnostics include blood examination for C-reactive protein (CRP) and other biomarkers, as well as joint aspirate analysis for cell count, differentiation, and culture. Intraoperative specimens for histology and microbiology are also standard procedure. The microbiological examination of removed implants with sonication, in combination with the implementation of molecular biology techniques in microbiology, represent two novel techniques currently employed to enhance the differential diagnostics of PJI. We present here the step-wise procedure of analyzing joint aspirate and sonication fluid, using a cartridge-based multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system. Results were matched against conventional cultures and consensus criteria for PJI. Conventional microbiological cultures from tissue biopsies, joint aspirate and sonication fluid showed a sensitivity of 66.7%, 66.7%, and 88.9%, respectively, and a specificity of 82.3%, 54.6%, and 61.5%, respectively. The PCR diagnostic of the sonication fluid and the joint fluid showed a sensitivity of 50.0% and 55.6%, respectively, and both a specificity of 100.0%. Both PCR diagnostics combined had a sensitivity of 66.7% and a specificity of 100.0%. The multiplex PCR therefore presents a rapid diagnostic tool with moderate sensitivity but high specificity in diagnosing PJI.

Unyvero i60 implant and tissue infection (ITI) multiplex PCR system in diagnosing periprosthetic joint infection.

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is one of the most challenging complications in orthopedic surgery. In cases of suspected periprosthetic joint infection several diagnostic methods are available. In this study we investigated the performance of the newly available Unyvero i60 implant and tissue infection (ITI) multiplex PCR System. 62 specimens from 31 patients with suspected PJI or aseptic loosening of a painful joint arthoplasty were included in this study. Besides the established diagnostic procedures we included a commercial multiplex PCR detection system for diagnosis of PJI. The PCR results obtained from analysis of sonication and synovial fluids (62 specimens) showed a sensitivity of 66.7%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 100% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 68.4% when compared to cultural methods. Notably, cultures from sonication fluid displayed a sensitivity of 88.9%, a specificity of 61.5%, a PPV of 76.2% and a NPV of 80.0% when compared to tissue cultures. In conclusion, multiplex PCR is an additional - rapid - method for diagnosing PJI. Positive results with the PCR assay used in this study were always confirmed by subsequent matching culture positivity. However, apart from the time saved the nucleic acid amplification technique did not yield additional information than that obtained from microbiological cultures.