Multicenter Clinical Validation of a Cartridge-Based Real-Time PCR System for Detection of Coccidioides spp. in Lower Respiratory Specimens.

ABSTRACT: Available methods for the diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis have significant shortcomings relative to accuracy and timeliness. We retrospectively and prospectively evaluated the diagnostic performance and reproducibility of a new cartridge-based real-time PCR assay for Coccidioides spp. directly in lower respiratory secretions and compared them to today's "gold standard," fungal culture. The GeneSTAT Coccidioides assay uses a 106-bp target sequence repeated multiple times (∼60×) per genome, thus lowering the limit of detection (LOD) for extracted DNA to 10 genome equivalents/ml. A total of 332 prospective and retrospective individual patient specimens were tested. The retrospective samples consisted of 100 bronchoalveolar lavage or bronchial wash (BAL/BW) (51 positive and 49 ne

SUBMITTER: Saubolle MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5786707 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature