Presence of Cytomegalovirus in urine and blood of pregnant women with primary infection might be associated with fetal infection.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) congenital infection can result from primary infection, reinfection or reactivation among pregnant women. The risk of vertical transmission is much higher in case of primary infection, and the transmission rate increases with gestational age. However there are still many questions about maternal markers that can predict whether the virus will be transmitted to the fetus.

Evaluation of a new commercial real-time PCR assay for diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and identification of dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) mutations.

The PneumoGenius® real-time PCR assay is a new commercial multiplex real-time PCR method, which detects the Pneumocystis mitochondrial ribosomal large subunit (mtLSU) and two dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) point mutations. To evaluate the clinical performance of this new real-time PCR assay we tested 120 extracted DNA samples from bronchoalveolar lavage specimens. These set of extracted DNA samples had already tested positive for Pneumocystis and patients had been classified in probable and unlikely PCP in a previous study.

Comparison of 2 real-time PCR assays for diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and non-HIV immunocompromised patients.

A total of 120 bronchoalveolar lavage specimens from HIV and non-HIV immunocompromised patients, positive for Pneumocystis jirovecii by an "in house" real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), were evaluated by the Bio-Evolution Pneumocystis real-time PCR, a commercial quantitative assay. Patients were classified in 2 categories based on clinical and radiological findings: definite and unlikely Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). For the "in house" PCR, cycle threshold 34 was established as cut-off value to discriminate definite PCP from unlikely PCP with 65% and 85% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively.

Quantitative TaqMan PCR for detection of Pneumocystis jiroveci.

We developed a quantitative real-time PCR assay for detection and quantification of Pneumocystis jiroveci in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens based on primers and probe targeting the gene encoding beta-tubulin. The assay was able to detect 50 DNA copies per ml of a standard plasmid containing the target sequence. The intra- and interassay coefficients of variation were 0.

Human herpesvirus-6 infection after lung and heart-lung transplantation: a prospective longitudinal study.

Background: Although human herpesvirus (HHV)-6 is now recognized as a frequent pathogen after transplantation, the real impact of this infection in patients undergoing transplantation remains unclear.

Methods: During 27 months, 30 consecutive heart-lung- and lung-transplant recipients were included on the day of transplantation and prospectively followed during 100 days for HHV-6 infection.

Results: HHV-6 infection occurred in 20 (66%) patients after a median delay of 18 days after transplantation.