%0 Journal Article %A Hierl, Thomas %A Reischl, Udo %A Lang, Peter %A Hebart, Holger %A Stark, Maik %A Kyme, Pierre %A Autenrieth, Ingo B. %T Preliminary evaluation of one conventional nested and two real-time PCR assays for the detection of Toxoplasma gondii in immunocompromised patients %D 2004 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 53 %N 7 %P 629-632 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.45566-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X Toxoplasma reactivation is a serious complication in patients receiving allogenic stem cell transplantation. Real-time PCR assays allow a rapid diagnosis of toxoplasma infection; however, no comparative data are available on the performance of real-time PCR protocols under routine conditions. Therefore, the aim of this study was to amplify Toxoplasma gondii DNA from routine samples of allogenic stem cell recipients using two real-time PCR assays on a LightCycler, and using conventional nested PCR. Conventional nested PCR revealed T. gondii DNA in 16 samples. Only 12 of the 16 samples yielded a positive result in both real-time PCRs. The accuracy of the conventional PCR results was demonstrated by direct sequencing. Amplification and detection of the amplicon was completed in only 1 h using the real-time PCR assays. Thus, real-time PCR substantially accelerates the detection of T. gondii DNA in the majority of positive specimens; however, conventional nested PCR is required for detection of T. gondii DNA in some samples. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.45566-0