Identification of Treponema Pallidum By PCR Assay From Patients And Assessment Of The Assay's Performance By Comparison With Serological Testing

Ph.D,; Ghaly Yousif, Maitham

	Identification of Treponema Pallidum By PCR Assay From Patients And Assessment Of The Assay's Performance By Comparison With Serological Testing
KUFA MEDICAL JOURNAL
Article 1, Volume 11, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 213-221
Authors
; Maitham Ghaly Yousif
Abstract
Syphilis is diagnosed by serologic testing or by identification of the causative agent, Treponema pallidum. The bacterium has historically been detected in clinical specimens by dark-field microscopy, immunostaining with polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies, or the rabbit inoculation test (RIT). RIT is considered to be very sensitive and specific, although it is available only in research settings and is not clinically useful due to the length of time required to obtain a result. A TaqMan real-time PCR assay targeting the polA gene of Treponema pallidum (TpPCR) was used. The analytical sensitivity of the assay was estimated to be 1.76 target copies per reaction. Initially, the assay was used to test a variety of specimens from 300 patients collected from the Hospitals of Najaf Governorate from first February 2005 to end February 2007. Of the 300 tests performed, positive PCR results were obtained for 20 patients. TpPCR results were compared with serology results for 13 patients being investigated for early syphilis. Of these patients, 12 were positive by both TpPCR and serology, 288 were negative by both TpPCR and serology, 8 were TpPCR positive but negative by serology, and 1 were TpPCR negative but showed evidence of recent or active infection by serology. We found that TpPCR is a important useful addition to serology for the diagnosis of infectious syphilis. T. pallidum PCR concern a vital assay to diagnostic syphilis especially in Iraqi Hospitals

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