RESUMO
1978 women and 93 men, all suspected of having a Trichomonas vaginalis infection, were tested for the presence of T. vaginalis by real-time PCR using the T. vaginalis-specific 2-kb repeated sequence, and by direct microscopy and culture. 40 samples were positive by T. vaginalis real-time PCR and 27 were positive by wet mount microscopy, either direct or after culture. All samples positive by direct microscopy of culture were also positive by real-time PCR. Of the 13 samples which were real-time PCR positive but negative by direct microscopy and culture 11 were confirmed by another T. vaginalis real-time PCR based on the beta tubulin gene. Only 2 samples (0.1%) showed inhibition in the PCR. The prevalence of T. vaginalis infection in the female patients was 1.8%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the real-time PCR were 100%, 99.9%, 95% and 100%, respectively. The same test characteristics for the combined conventional T. vaginalis detection methods (microscopy+culture) were 71%, 100%, 100% and 99%, respectively. Therefore, real-time PCR is the method of choice for the diagnosis of T. vaginalis infection.
Assuntos
Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase/métodos , Vaginite por Trichomonas/parasitologia , Trichomonas vaginalis/isolamento & purificação , Animais , DNA de Protozoário/química , DNA de Protozoário/genética , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Países Baixos , Valor Preditivo dos Testes , Sequências Repetitivas de Ácido Nucleico/genética , Sensibilidade e Especificidade , Trichomonas vaginalis/genética , Tubulina (Proteína)/química , Tubulina (Proteína)/genéticaRESUMO
A total of 3,023 clinical specimens were tested for Neisseria gonorrhoeae by using COBAS AMPLICOR (CA) PCR and confirmation of positives by N. gonorrhoeae-specific 16S rRNA PCR. The sensitivity of CA plus 16S rRNA PCR was 98.8%, compared to 68.2% for culture. Confirmation of CA positives increased the positive predictive value from 54.8 to 96.6%.