Revisiting pneumococcal carriage by use of broth enrichment and PCR techniques for enhanced detection of carriage and serotypes.

ABSTRACT: The measurement of pneumococcal carriage in the nasopharyngeal reservoir is subject to potential confounders that include low-density and multiple-strain colonization. To compare different methodologies, we picked a random sampling of 100 nasopharyngeal specimens recovered from infants less than 2 years of age who were previously assessed for pneumococcal carriage and serotypes by a conventional method that used direct plating from the transport/storage medium (50 specimens were culture negative and 50 specimens were culture positive for pneumococci). We used a broth enrichment approach and a conventional PCR approach (with and without broth enrichment) to determine pneumococcal carriage and serotypes, and the results were compared to the initial conventional culture-based results. Additio

SUBMITTER: da Gloria Carvalho M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2863911 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature