Autor: |
Sara Guiducci, Maria Moriondo, Francesco Nieddu, Silvia Ricci, Elisa De Vitis, Arianna Casini, Giovanni Maria Poggi, Giuseppe Indolfi, Massimo Resti, Chiara Azzari |
Jazyk: |
angličtina |
Rok vydání: |
2019 |
Předmět: |
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Zdroj: |
PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 3, p e0212922 (2019) |
Druh dokumentu: |
article |
ISSN: |
1932-6203 |
DOI: |
10.1371/journal.pone.0212922 |
Popis: |
BackgroundInvasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a highly lethal disease. Diagnosis is commonly performed by culture or Realtime-PCR (qPCR).AimsOur aim was to evaluate, retrospectively, whether culture positivity correlates with higher bacterial load and fatal outcome. Our secondary aim was to compare culture and qPCR sensitivity.MethodsThe National Register for Molecular Surveillance was used as data source. Cycle threshold (CT), known to be inversely correlated with bacterial load, was used to compare bacterial load in different samples.ResultsThree-hundred-thirteen patients were found positive for Neisseria meningitidis by qPCR, or culture, or both; 41 died (case fatality rate 13.1%); 128/143 (89.5%) blood samples and 138/144 (95.8%) CSF were positive by qPCR, 37/143 (25.9%) blood samples and 45/144 (31.2%) CSF were also positive in culture. qPCR was 3.5 times (blood) or 3.1 times (CSF) more sensitive than culture in achieving a laboratory diagnosis of IMD (OR 24.4; 95% CI 12.2-49.8; p < .10-4; Cohen's κ 0.08 for blood and OR 49.0; 95% CI 19.1-133.4; pConclusionsIn conclusion our study demonstrated that qPCR is significantly (at least 3 times) more sensitive than culture in the laboratory confirmation of IMD. The study also demonstrated that culture negativity is not associated with lower bacterial loads and with less severe cases. On the other side, in patients with sepsis, qPCR can predict fatal outcome since higher bacterial load, evaluated by qPCR, appears strictly associated with most severe cases and fatal outcome. The study also showed that molecular techniques such as qPCR can provide a valuable addition to the proportion of diagnosed and serotyped cases of IMD. |
Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
Externí odkaz: |
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