DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN LISTERIOSIS - NEW APPR OACHES

Two new approaches have been proposed for diagnosis of human listerios is. They aim principally to diagnose central nervous system (CNS) infe ctions in adults. The first approach is the detection of Listeria mono cytogenes DNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by means of polymerase chai n reaction amplification. The detection limit with published procedure s is 10(2) colony forming units/ml of CSF. The second approach is sero diagnosis based upon the detection of anti-listeriolysin O. This latte r approach is suitable for diagnosing culture-negative listeriosis of CNS. Controlled prospective studies are needed in the future to evalua te these new methods.