Polymerase chain reaction is superior to serology for the diagnosis of acute Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection and reveals a high rate of persistent infection

• Published in: BMC microbiology Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 93
• Main Authors: Nilsson, Anna C, Bjorkman, Per, Persson, Kenneth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 11.06.2008; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antibodies, Bacterial - blood; Basic Medicine; Causes of; Child; Child, Preschool; Diagnosis; Disease Outbreaks; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Female; Humans; Male; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper; Methods; Microbiology in the Medical Area; Middle Aged; Mikrobiologi inom det medicinska området; Mycoplasma infections; Mycoplasma pneumoniae; Mycoplasma pneumoniae - genetics; Mycoplasma pneumoniae - immunology; Mycoplasma pneumoniae - isolation & purification; Oropharynx - microbiology; Physiological aspects; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - diagnosis; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - immunology; Pneumonia, Mycoplasma - microbiology; Polymerase chain reaction; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Serologic Tests - methods; Sweden
• ISSN: 1471-2180; 1471-2180
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-8-93

Diagnosis of Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection is traditionally based on serology, which may require more than two weeks for diagnostic antibodies to develop. PCR-based methods offer earlier diagnosis. During a community outbreak of MP infection, we compared semi-nested and real-time PCR of oroph...