Development of a multiple internal control for clinical diagnostic real-time amplification assays.

A major pitfall in most published genomic amplification methods for the detection and identification of human pathogens is that they do not include an internal amplification control in order to achieve an acceptable level of confidence for the absence of false-negative results. By applying composite primer technology, a single multiple internal amplification control DNA molecule was constructed to detect and quantify the hepatitis B virus, human polyomavirus, Epstein-Barr virus, Toxoplasma gondii and cytomegalovirus using real-time PCR. The multiple internal amplification control contains all forward and reverse primer binding regions targeted in the five distinct duplex PCRs, but with a unique probe hybridization site.

Intravesical instillation of cidofovir in the treatment of hemorrhagic cystitis caused by adenovirus type 11 in a bone marrow transplant recipient.

Hemorrhagic cystitis that occurs late after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in BMT recipients is often associated with adenovirus or polyomavirus BK infections. Intravesical instillation of cidofovir in a BMT recipient with intractable hemorrhagic cystitis resulted in clinical improvement. Local cidofovir therapy for viral hemorrhagic cystitis could be an alternative to intravenous administration of cidofovir.

Early detection and identification of commonly encountered Candida species from simulated blood cultures by using a real-time PCR-based assay.

In a recent study, Candida species in clinical blood samples were detected using a real-time PCR-based method (Maaroufi et al, J Clin Microbiol 2003, 41:3293-3298). For the present study, we evaluated the efficiency of this method as an adjunct to the BACTEC blood culture system to early detection of positivity and negativity of simulated low candidemias. We first established an in vitro correlation between the inoculum of the most frequently encountered Candida species and the time to positivity of these microorganisms.

Rapid detection of Candida albicans in clinical blood samples by using a TaqMan-based PCR assay.

We describe a rapid and reproducible PCR assay for quantitation of the Candida albicans ribosomal DNA (rDNA) in clinical blood samples based on the TaqMan principle (Applied Biosystems), in which a signal is generated by cleavage of a template-specific probe during amplification. We used two fluorogenic probes based on universal, fungus-specific primers, one for the detection of C. albicans species DNA and one for the detection of all Candida genus DNA.

Ex vivo pharmacodynamic study of piperacillin alone and in combination with tazobactam, compared with ticarcillin plus clavulanic acid.

Ten volunteers received piperacillin (4 g), piperacillin (4 g) plus tazobactam (0.5 g) (Tazocin), and ticarcillin (3 g) plus clavulanic acid (0.2 g) (Timentin) intravenously over 30 min in a cross-over blinded scheme.