Comparison of Neisseria gonorrhoeae MICs obtained by Etest and agar dilution for ceftriaxone, cefpodoxime, cefixime and azithromycin.

We evaluated Neisseria gonorrhoeae Etest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) relative to agar dilution MICs for 664 urethral isolates for ceftriaxone (CRO) and azithromycin (AZM), 351 isolates for cefpodoxime (CPD) and 315 isolates for cefixime (CFM). Etest accurately determined CPD, CFM and AZM MICs, but resulted in higher CRO MICs.

Assessment of sensitivity and specificity of first, second, and third generation EIA for the detection of antibodies to HIV-1 in oral fluid.

The performances of three blood-based immunoassays test kits were compared with regard to their ability to detect HIV-1 antibody in oral fluid. It was found that these three kits differ in their ability to detect HIV-1 antibody. Notably, a third generation EIA which has been shown to possess superior sensitivity for antibody detection in plasma appears to possess no sensitivity advantage for detecting HIV-1 antibody in oral fluid.

Real-Time PCR for detection of herpes simplex virus without nucleic acid extraction.

Background: The speed and sensitivity of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have made it a popular method for the detection of microbiological agents in both research and clinical specimens. For the detection and genotyping of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in clinical specimens, real-time PCR has proven to be faster, more sensitive and safer than earlier methods which included isolation of the virus in cell culture followed by immunofluorescence microscopy. While PCR-based assays for HSV detection posses clear advantages over these earlier techniques, certain aspects of the PCR method remain onerous.