Identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae lytA, plyA and psaA genes in pleural fluid by multiplex real-time PCR
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Juan Carlos Sanz1, Esther Ríos2, Iciar Rodríguez-Avial2
1Laboratorio Regional de Salud Pública de la Comunidad de Madrid, Unidad de Microbiología Clínica, Centro de Especialidades Médicas Vicente Soldevilla 2ª planta, Madrid 28053, Spain; CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
Introduction:
The aim was to evaluate the utility of a multiplex real-time PCR to detect Streptococcus pneumoniae lytA, plyA and psaA genes in pleural fluid (PF).
Methods:
A collection of 81 PF samples was used. Sixty were considered positive for S. pneumoniae according to previous results (54 by an in-house lytA gene PCR and eight by universal rRNA PCR).
Results:
The sensitivity for detection of the lytA, plyA and psaA genes by multiplex PCR was 100% (60/60), 98.3% (59/60) and 91.7% (55/60), respectively. The detection of all three genes was negative in 21 samples formerly confirmed as negative for S. pneumoniae (100% specificity) by the other procedures (9 by in-house lytA PCR and 12 by rRNA PCR).
Conclusions:
The use of this multiplex PCR may be a useful option to identify S. pneumoniae directly in PF samples.
