Polymerase chain reaction-amplification of urease genes: rapid screening for ureaplasma urealyticum infection in endotracheal aspirates of ventilated newborns.

Ureaplasma urealyticum infection has been considered to play an important role in the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in premature infants. Since standard culture methods of U. urealyticum are difficult to perform, new rapid and sensitive methods are needed to detect lung infection of ventilated newborns. Here we describe the polymerase chain reaction as a rapid method to screen endotracheal aspirates for ureaplasma infection. Urease-specific sequences could only be detected in 1 out of 36 ventilated newborns. The procedure described in this paper may facilitate further studies to determine the role of U. urealyticum in development of BPD.