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J Med Microbiol 56 (2007), 320-322; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.46762-0
© 2007 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

Comparative performance of the Roche COBAS Amplicor assay and an in-house real-time PCR assay for diagnosis of Chlamydia trachomatis infection

Hamid Jalal1, Abdulrahman Al-Suwaine2, Hannah Stephen1, Christopher Carne3 and Christopher Sonnex3

1 Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Laboratory, Box 236, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QW, UK

2 King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

3 Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Clinic 1A, Box 38, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK

Correspondence
Hamid Jalal
hamid.jalal{at}addenbrookes.nhs.uk

Received 6 June 2006
Accepted 30 October 2006

This study investigated the comparative performance of the Amplicor assay and an in-house semi-automated, multiplex real-time PCR for the diagnosis of genital chlamydial infection. Four different assays, the COBAS Amplicor CT test (Amplicor PCR), in-house real-time PCR (IHRT-PCR), in-house nested cryptic plasmid PCR and in-house nested major outer membrane protein PCR, were performed on genital swabs from 1000 consecutive patients attending a genitourinary medicine clinic. The samples were designated true positive if Chlamydia trachomatis DNA was detected by at least two of the four above-mentioned assays while a sample was defined as true negative if C. trachomatis DNA was detected in only one or none of the assays. By this criterion, there were 129 true positive and 871 true negative samples for C. trachomatis DNA in this cohort. Amplicor PCR designated 144 samples positive: 128 (89 %) of 144 samples were true positive and 16 (11 %) were false positive. IHRT-PCR detected 126 of 129 true positive samples and did not generate any false positive results. The sensitivity of IHRT-PCR was comparable with, and specificity was higher than, Amplicor PCR for the diagnosis of genital chlamydial infection.

Abbreviations: IHNCP-PCR, in-house nested cryptic plasmid PCR; IHNMOMP-PCR, in-house nested major outer membrane protein PCR; IHRT-PCR, in-house real-time PCR; NAATs, nucleic acid amplification tests.






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