implementation and assessment of the use of real-time pcr in routine diagnosis for bordetella pertussis detection in brazil

background: bordetella pertussis is the causative agent of pertussis. in brazil, laboratory diagnosis of pertussis is based on the culture. in 2010, was standardized the real-time pcr taqman® in routine diagnosis. objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact achieved with the introduction of rt-pcr for the routine diagnosis of pertussis and to compare with the results obtained from culture. patients and methods: 4,697 samples of nasopharyngeal secretions collected from suspected pertussis cases and/or contacts were analyzed for rt-pcr and culture, from january 2008 until the end of december 2011. results: according to the results obtained from the samples 6.9% were culture/rt-pcr positive, 14.8% were positive only for rt-pcr and 0.2% only for culture. negative samples for both techniques was 3,622 (77.1%) and 1.0% were inconclusive for rt-pcr. conclusions: the implementation of rt-pcr in routine diagnosis resulted in an increase in laboratory confirmation by almost three times. the rt-pcr assay does not intend to replace the culture technique, but to promote an improvement in the diagnosis of pertussis.