1887

Abstract

Summary

Early diagnosis of leptospirosis is important because severe leptospiral infection can run a fulminant course. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was evaluated for the detection of leptospires in clinical samples from patients with acute leptospiral infection. Blood and urine samples from 71 patients with leptospirosis were examined by PCR, culture or serology. Samples from 44 (62%) patients with the diagnosis of leptospirosis were positive by PCR as compared to 34 (48%) by culture. The presence of leptospires was demonstrated by PCR in 13 patients before the development of antibodies, as well as in two patients who were seronegative during their illness and at autopsy. Samples from 16 patients without leptospirosis were seronegative and culture negative, and also negative by PCR. We conclude that PCR is a rapid, sensitive and specific means of diagnosing leptospiral infection, especially during the first few days of the disease.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-43-2-110
1995-08-01
2024-04-16
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/43/2/medmicro-43-2-110.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-43-2-110&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Turner L. H. Leptospirosis III. Maintenance, isolation and demonstration of leptospires. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1970; 64:623–646
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bayley H. H. An investigation of the infectious jaundice of Barbados. Carib Med J 1939; 1:135–142
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Everard J. D., Everard C. O. R. Leptospirosis in the Caribbean. Rev Med Microbiol 1993; 4:114–122
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Faine S. (ed) In Guidelines for the control of leptospirosis WHO Offset Publications no. 67 World Health Organization; Geneva: 198243–98
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Van Eys G. J. J. M., Gravekamp C., Gerritsen M. J. Detection of leptospires in urine by polymerase chain reaction. J Clin Microbiol 1989; 27:2258–2262
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Gravekamp C., Van de Kemp H., Carrington D., Van Eys G. J. J. M., Everard C. O. R., Terpstra W. J. Detection of leptospiral DNA by PCR in serum from patients with copenhageni infections. In Kobayashi Y. (ed) Leptospirosis. Proceedings of the Leptospirosis Research Conference 1990, The 75th Anniversary of the Discovery of Causal Organism of Weil’s Disease by Inada and Ido Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press; 1991151–164
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gravekamp C., Van de Kemp H., Franzen M. Detection of seven species of pathogenic leptospires by PCR using two sets of primers. J Gen Microbiol 1993; 139:1691–1700
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Kogan S. C., Doherty M., Gitschier J. An improved method for prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases by analysis of amplified DNA sequences. Application to haemophilia A. N Engl J Med 1987; 317:985–990
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Saiki R. K., Scharf S., Faloona F. Enzymatic amplification of β-globin genomic sequences and restriction site analysis for diagnosis of sickle cell anemia. Science 1985; 230:1350–1354
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Wong C., Dowling C. E., Saiki R. K., Higuchi R. G., Erlich H. A., Kazazian H. H. Characterization of α-thalassaemia mutations using direct genome sequencing of amplified single copy DNA. Nature 1987; 330:384–386
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Demmler G. J., Buffone G. J., Schimbor C. M., May R. A. Detection of cytomegalovirus in urine from newborns by using the polymerase chain reaction DNA amplification. J Infect Dis 1988; 158:1177–1184
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Ou C.-Y., Kwok S., Mitchell S. W. DNA amplification for direct detection of HIV-I in DNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Science 1988; 239:295–297
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Shibata D. K., Arnheim N., Martin W. J. Detection of human papilloma virus in paraffin-embedded tissue using the polymerase chain reaction. J Exp Med 1988; 167:225–230
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Hartskeerl R. A., de Wit M. Y. L., Klatser P. R. Polymerase chain reaction for the detection of Mycobacterium leprae. J Gen Microbiol 1989; 135:2357–2364
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Noordhoek G. T., Wolters E. C., de Jonge M. E. J., Van Embden J. D. A. Detection by polymerase chain reaction of Treponema pallidum DNA in cerebrospinal fluid from neurosyphilis patients before and after antibiotic treatment. J Clin Microbiol 1991; 29:1976–1984
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Woods S. A., Cole S. T. A rapid method for the detection of potentially viable Mycobacterium leprae in human biopsies: a novel application of PCR. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1989; 65:305–310
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Johnson R. C., Harris V. G. Differentiation of pathogenic and saprophytic leptospires. I. Growth at low temperatures. J Bacteriol 1967; 94:27–31
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Korver H., Kolk A. H. J., Vingerhoed J., van Leewen J., Terpstra W. J. Classification of the icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup by monoclonal antibodies. Isr J Vet Med 1988; 44:15–18
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Dikken H., Kmety E. Serological typing methods of leptospirosis. In Bergan T., Norris J. R. (eds) Methods in Microbiology 11 London: Academic Press; 1978259–293
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Terpstra W. J., Ligthart G. S., Schoone G. J. Serodiagnosis of human leptospirosis by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent-assay (ELISA). Zentralbl Bakteriol [A] 1980; 247:400–405
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Boom R., Sol C. J. A., Salimans M. M. M., Jansen C. L., Wertheim-van Dillen P. M. E., van der Noordaa J. Rapid and simple method for purification of nucleic acids. J Clin Microbiol 1990; 28:495–503
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Bal A. E., Gravekamp C., Hartskeerl R. A., de Meza-Brewster J., Korver H., Terpstra W. J. Detection of leptospires in urine by PCR for early diagnosis of leptospirosis. J Clin Microbiol 1994; 32:1894–1898
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Burstain J. M., Grimprel E., Lukehart S. A., Norgard N. V., Radolf J. D. Sensitive detection of Treponema pallidum by using the polymerase chain reaction. J Clin Microbiol 1991; 29:62–69
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Hay P. E., Clarke J. R., Strugnell R. A., Taylor-Robinson D., Goldmeier D. Use of the polymerase chain reaction to detect DNA sequences specific to pathogenic treponemes in cerebrospinal fluid. FEMS Microbiol Lett 1990; 68:233–238
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Melchers W., Meis J., Rosa P. Amplification of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in skin biopsies from patients with Lyme disease. J Clin Microbiol 1991; 29:2401–2406
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-43-2-110
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/00222615-43-2-110
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error