Jung-Yien Chien1, Chia-Jung Liu1, Pei-Chien Chuang2, Tai-Fen Lee2, Yu-Tsung Huang3,4, Chun-Hsing Liao3, Chien-Ching Hung1, Wan-Huei Sheng1, Chong-Jen Yu1, Po-Ren Hsueh1,2. 1. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. 2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. 3. Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan. 4. Graduate Institute of Clinical Laboratory Sciences & Medical Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Abstract
AIM: We evaluated the performance of the automated quantitative BD MAX (Becton Dickinson) real-time PCR platform for detecting Pneumocystis jirovecii. MATERIALS & METHODS: A total of 34 retrospective and 137 prospective samples were included. RESULTS: Retrospectively, all (100%) positive samples were correctly detected by this platform compared with a nested PCR. Among prospective samples, the overall sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 92.6%, 94.5%, 17.0 and 0.1, respectively. All bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF)/bronchial washing samples were correctly identified by this platform. Samples from patients with colonization had significantly higher median amplification cycle threshold values than patients with P. jirovecii pneumonia. CONCLUSION: The quantitative BD MAX real-time PCR is a rapid and highly sensitive modality for detecting P. jirovecii, especially in samples from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid/bronchial washing fluid.
AIM: We evaluated the performance of the automated quantitative BD MAX (Becton Dickinson) real-time PCR platform for detecting Pneumocystis jirovecii. MATERIALS & METHODS: A total of 34 retrospective and 137 prospective samples were included. RESULTS: Retrospectively, all (100%) positive samples were correctly detected by this platform compared with a nested PCR. Among prospective samples, the overall sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 92.6%, 94.5%, 17.0 and 0.1, respectively. All bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF)/bronchial washing samples were correctly identified by this platform. Samples from patients with colonization had significantly higher median amplification cycle threshold values than patients with P. jiroveciipneumonia. CONCLUSION: The quantitative BD MAX real-time PCR is a rapid and highly sensitive modality for detecting P. jirovecii, especially in samples from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid/bronchial washing fluid.
Entities:
Keywords:
MSG; P. jirovecii pneumonia; PCR; Pneumocystis jirovecii; major surface glycoprotein; mtLSU PCR; nested mitochondrial large subunit (mtLSU) PCR; real-time PCR