Detection and serotyping of pneumococci in community acquired pneumonia patients without culture using blood and urine samples.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Treatment of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients with antibiotics before laboratory-confirmed diagnosis leads to loss of knowledge on the causative bacterial pathogen. Therefore, an increasing number of pneumococcal infections is identified using non-culture based techniques. However, methods for serotyping directly on the clinical specimen remain scarce. Here we present three approaches for detection and serotyping of pneumococci using samples from patients with CAP.

Methods

The first approach is quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis on blood samples (n = 211) followed by capsular sequence typing (CST) to identify the serotype. The second approach, a urinary antigen assay (n = 223), designated as inhibition multiplex immunoassay (IMIA), is based on Luminex tec

SUBMITTER: Elberse K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4330648 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature