Evaluation of the clinical sensitivity and specificity of the BD Max™ Enteric Bacterial Panel for molecular detection of pathogens for acute gastroenteritis in the Singaporean population.

Purpose: Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is caused by a wide range of pathogens. Culture methods for the detection of bacterial pathogens is time consuming and labour intensive. This study compared a same-day-to-result commercial molecular method using BD Max™ Enteric Bacterial Panel against conventional culture and laboratory-developed PCR assays (LDTs), and characterised the epidemiology of bacterial AGE in Singapore.

Development and validation of a real-time multiplex PCR assay for the detection of dermatophytes and spp.

Onychomycosis is a debilitating, difficult-to-treat nail fungal infection with increasing prevalence worldwide. The main etiological agents are dermatophytes, which are common causative pathogens in superficial fungal mycoses. Conventional detection methods such as fungal culture have low sensitivity and specificity and are time-consuming.

Evaluation of bacterial recovery and viability from three different swab transport systems.

This study evaluated three types of swab transport systems for organism recovery. Swabs with transport media were further assessed for organism viability over 24  hours over a range of different storage temperatures. Test organisms consisted of aerobes, fastidious aerobes and anaerobes.