Enterovirus D68 outbreak detection through a syndromic disease epidemiology network.

Background: In 2014, enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was responsible for an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in children, with 1,153 EV-D68 cases reported across 49 states. Despite this, there is no commercial assay for its detection in routine clinical care. BioFire® Syndromic Trends (Trend) is an epidemiological network that collects, in near real-time, deidentified.

Automated Real-Time Collection of Pathogen-Specific Diagnostic Data: Syndromic Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Background: Health care and public health professionals rely on accurate, real-time monitoring of infectious diseases for outbreak preparedness and response. Early detection of outbreaks is improved by systems that are comprehensive and specific with respect to the pathogen but are rapid in reporting the data. It has proven difficult to implement these requirements on a large scale while maintaining patient privacy.

Detection of 23 Gastrointestinal Pathogens Among Children Who Present With Diarrhea.

Background: Diarrheal diseases are a major cause of ambulatory care visits and hospitalizations among children. Because of overlapping signs and symptoms and expensive and inefficient testing methods, the etiology of pediatric diarrhea is rarely established.

Methods: We identified children <18 years of age who were evaluated for diarrhea at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, between October 2010 and September 2012.

Getting things backwards to prevent primer dimers.

This Commentary highlights the article by Satterfield that describes a new class of primer technology-cooperative primers, which prevent primer-dimer amplification.

Rapid identification of pathogens from positive blood cultures by multiplex polymerase chain reaction using the FilmArray system.

Sepsis is a leading cause of death. Rapid and accurate identification of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance directly from blood culture could improve patient outcomes. The FilmArray® (FA; Idaho Technology, Salt Lake City, UT, USA) Blood Culture (BC) panel can identify >25 pathogens and 4 antibiotic resistance genes from positive blood cultures in 1 h.

Respiratory virus detection in immunocompromised patients with FilmArray respiratory panel compared to conventional methods.

Respiratory virus infections cause significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Timely diagnosis is needed to provide optimal clinical care. Diagnostic tests routinely available at most institutions are limited by poor sensitivity and a slow turnaround time.

FilmArray, an automated nested multiplex PCR system for multi-pathogen detection: development and application to respiratory tract infection.

The ideal clinical diagnostic system should deliver rapid, sensitive, specific and reproducible results while minimizing the requirements for specialized laboratory facilities and skilled technicians. We describe an integrated diagnostic platform, the "FilmArray", which fully automates the detection and identification of multiple organisms from a single sample in about one hour. An unprocessed biologic/clinical sample is subjected to nucleic acid purification, reverse transcription, a high-order nested multiplex polymerase chain reaction and amplicon melt curve analysis.

Non-invasive sample collection for respiratory virus testing by multiplex PCR.

Background: Identifying respiratory pathogens within populations is difficult because invasive sample collection, such as with nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA), is generally required. PCR technology could allow for non-invasive sampling methods.

Objective: Evaluate the utility of non-invasive sample collection using anterior nare swabs and facial tissues for respiratory virus detection by multiplex PCR.

Molecular analysis improves pathogen identification and epidemiologic study of pediatric parapneumonic empyema.

Background: Parapneumonic empyema (PPE) is an increasingly common complication of bacterial pneumonia. Epidemiologic study is complicated by the low frequency of positive cultures. We sought to describe the epidemiology of PPE in children using molecular analysis of pleural fluid.

Snapback primer genotyping with saturating DNA dye and melting analysis.

Background: DNA hairpins have been used in molecular analysis of PCR products as self-probing amplicons. Either physical separation or fluorescent oligonucleotides with covalent modifications were previously necessary.

Methods: We performed asymmetric PCR for 40-45 cycles in the presence of the saturating DNA dye, LCGreen Plus, with 1 primer including a 5' tail complementary to its extension product, but without any special covalent modifications.

Isolation of a peptide inhibitor of human rhinovirus.

Cell culture-based transdominant genetic techniques provide new methods for discovering peptide/RNA modulators of cellular pathways. We applied this technology to isolate a peptide inhibitor of human rhinovirus. A green fluorescent protein (GFP)-scaffolded library of cDNA fragments was expressed in HeLa cells from a retroviral vector and screened for inhibitors of rhinovirus-mediated cell killing.