Improved Detection of Respiratory Pathogens by Use of High-Quality Sputum with TaqMan Array Card Technology.

ABSTRACT: New diagnostic platforms often use nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal (NP/OP) swabs for pathogen detection for patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We applied multipathogen testing to high-quality sputum specimens to determine if more pathogens can be identified relative to NP/OP swabs. Children (<18 years old) and adults hospitalized with CAP were enrolled over 2.5 years through the Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study. NP/OP specimens with matching high-quality sputum (defined as ≤10 epithelial cells/low-power field [lpf] and ≥25 white blood cells/lpf or a quality score [q-score] definition of 2+) were tested by TaqMan array card (TAC), a multipathogen real-time PCR detection platform. Among 236 patients with matched specimens, a higher proportion of

SUBMITTER: Wolff BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5228222 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature