Diagnostics of invasive meningococcal, haemophilus and pneumococcal disease by PCR assay.

OBJECTIVES

Development of extended polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for non-culture detection of Nesseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumonie from invasive infections.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A method of PCR was optimalised on strains of Nesseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae b and Streptococcus pneumonie. Detection of pathogens was evaluated on 230 samples from patiens with invasive infection.

RESULTS

Positive results of PCR were found in 103 samples of 230 (44.7 %). The percentage of positivity was higher in CSF samples (57.0 %) than in serum (33.8 %) or blood (33.3 %) samples.

CONCLUSION

PCR method enables etiological diagnostics in cases, where antibiotic treatment was started. PCR results are available earlier than the results of cultivation. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of PCR products enables clonal analysis of etiological agents even in cases with negative results of cultivation.