Comparative diagnostic evaluation of real-time PCR and culture for detecting pathogens in podiatric wound infections.

ABSTRACT: Culture-based wound infection diagnostics have well-recognized limitations in detecting fastidious, anaerobic, or polymicrobial pathogens. This study compared the performance of a PCR wound panel with traditional culture. Dual-swab specimens from 93 clinical wound cases underwent both culture and PCR testing. Analyses included organism-level concordance, Gram stain correlation, and resistance gene detection. Logistic regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and latent class analysis (LCA) were used to evaluate diagnostic performance. Under the conventional (culture-referenced) framework, PCR sensitivity was 98.3% and specificity was 73.5%. LCA (model M3) estimated PCR sensitivity at 95.6% and specificity at 91%. PCR detected 110 clinically significant pathogens missed or ambigu

SUBMITTER: Dehghani M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12772387 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature