DETECTION OF CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS (PCR, LCR) BY AMPLIFICATION TECHNIQUES - ADVANTAGES AND LIMITS

Infections due to Chlamydia trachomatis are currently the most common STD in Switzerland. Various direct diagnosis tests are available to de tect this pathogen in uro-genital specimens. PCR (Polymerase Chain Rea ction) has been evaluated as the most sensitive. In this study, we com pared PCR (Amplicor Chlamdia trachomatis, Roche Diagnostic Molecular S yst.) with another amplification method, LCR (Ligase Chain Reaction) ( LCx Chlamdia trachomatis assay, Abbott AG). A total of 1,140 uro-genit al samples (956 from women and 184 from men) were analysed. Of these, 27 were positive in women and 5 in men. The prevalence was low and sim ilar in both groups (2.7 %). Sensitivity was identical for the LCR and PCR methods with only 5 divergent results. In most cases, inhibition of amplification explained this difference. The presence of inhibitors for the LCR method was analysed in 205 samples. An inhibition was det ected in 6.3 % of samples, only in cervical swabs. The important advan tage of LCR was the shorter hands-on time.