TACHOPOULOU O, PROCOP G, GOLDFARB J, SABELLA C, DOYLE L, TAEGE A, ISADA C; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (42nd : 2002 : San Diego, Calif.).
Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2002 Sep 27-30; 42: abstract no. D-2000.
Infectious Disease, Cleveland, OH.
BACKGROUND: Bartonella sp. are fastidious organisms which can cause potentially life threatening infections. Cultures, standard serologic studies, and traditional PCR techniques commonly fail to detect Bartonella sp. We report 2 cases of Bartonella infection diagnosed by Real-time PCR using a LightCycler technique. Case Reports: Case 1: A 52 year-old female with culture negative endocarditis. Serum IgG and IgM antibodies for Bartonella were >120 and 23 EIA units, respectively. Cultures and Bartonella PCR (at a reference laboratory) of the valve & blood were negative; Warthin-Starry stain of the aortic valve revealed bacteria. The patient underwent aortic valve replacement. She had nine kittens. Case 2. A 19-year-old female with a remote history of a resected left temporal lobe glioma. She was admitted with status epilepticus and fever. Cerebrospinal fluid cultures and serologies, HSV/ Bartonella PCR (at a reference laboratory) were negative. Serum IgG antibody titers for B. henselae and B. quintana were 1:64. She had recently acquired a kitten. METHODS: We used real-time PCR with fluorescent-labeled oligonucleotide probes that both detect and differentiate the most clinically relevant species of Bartonella. A portion of the 16S ribosomal subunit gene was the target of amplification. We employed this assay on the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue (case 1) and CSF (case 2), after Qiagen extraction. RESULTS: Quantitative curves were positive and melting curves revealed B. henselae (case 1) and B. quintana (case 2). CONCLUSIONS: Real-time PCR may provide faster, more accurate, and more sensitive diagnosis of Bartonella infections, compared with traditional PCR and culture. These are the first reports, to our knowledge, of the use of real-time PCR for the detection and differentiation of Bartonella species in human clinical specimens.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Bartonella
- Bartonella Infections
- Endocarditis
- Female
- Humans
- Immunoenzyme Techniques
- Paraffin Embedding
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Serologic Tests
- diagnosis
- history
Other ID:
UI: 102267473
From Meeting Abstracts