EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIAL POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ASSAY FOR THE DETECTION OF CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS

Cell culture has traditionally been considered the most sensitive meth od for detecting Chlamydia trachomatis from clinical specimens, but de pends upon the organisms being viable at the time of cell inoculation. Furthermore, cell culture is slow and labor intensive. Even when a sp ecial transport medium is used, there is a progressive loss of viabili ty of C. trachomatis during transport. The detection of C. trachomatis by cell culture is more rapid when immunofluorescence is used to dete ct early antigen, but requires considerable experience to interpret. T he Amplicor(TM) C. trachoma tis system is a commercial polymerase chai n reaction (PCR)-based assay combined with nucleic acid hybridization for the direct detection of C. trachomatis in taine and swabs of appro priate sites, with results available within 6 h. All specimens for C. trachomatis received by the Royal Perth Hospital Department of Microbi ology during the period 1 July 1994 to 30 June 1995 that were suitable for culture and Amplicor(TM) PCR were tested by both methods (2029 sp ecimens). Discordant results were obtained in nine cases and were reso lved by additional testing. Seventy-one specimens were confirmed as tr ue positives, of these Amplicor(TM) PCR correctly detected 67 (sensiti vity 94.4%) and culture correctly detected 62 (sensitivity 87.3%). The Amplicor(TM) PCR assay was found to be more sensitive and as specific as culture. It had the added advantages of ease of use, rapid availab ility of results, standardization and was more suited than culture to processing large numbers of specimens. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.