The herpes simplex viruses types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV) can cause life-threatening infections of the central nervous system and lead to severe infections in immunocompromised subjects and newborns. In these cases, rapid diagnosis is crucial. We developed three different real-time PCR assays based on TaqMan chemistry for the LightCycler instrument to detect HS...

About 90% of bovine malignant catarrhal fever (BMCF) PCR-positive cases in South Africa are caused by alcelaphine herpesvirus-1 (AlHV-1) and the other 10% by ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2). The prevalence of OvHV-2 in different sheep breeds in South Africa was determined in order to investigate whether the lower incidence of BMCF caused by OvHV-2 in comparison with AlHV-1 can be ascribed to a low...

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK In recent years, the diagnosis of toxoplasmosis has been improved by Real-time PCR assays. In this study we compared the performances of two Real-time PCRs (FRET and TaqMan protocols) already described in the literature, and one nested-PCR, currently used in our laboratory for the molecular diagnosis of toxoplasmosis. METHODS We evaluated the sensitivity and the...

Diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is difficult in cases with an unusual presentation and often requires a lung biopsy. The goal of this study was to determine the clinical usefulness of nested PCR on lung tissue for the diagnosis of pulmonary TB. Clinical and laboratory data were reviewed from patients who underwent diagnostic lung biopsies, followed by nested TB PCR on formalin-fixed pa...

conclusions in this study, high prevalence of 91.7% hcmv gb1 genotype was predominant among hcmv-positive uc patients, which suggests that there might be an association between hcmv gb genotype 1 and uc disease. results among 98 patients with uc, only 12 (12.2%) patients were positive for hcmv genome, while the hcmv genome was not detected in any of the controls. (p = 0.002). the distribution o...

conclusions in molecular epidemiology studies, nested pcr has higher sensitivity than pcr. results of this study support the colonization of p. jiroveci in patients receiving lung transplantation. patients who are carriers of p. jiroveci are at a higher risk of p. jiroveci pneumonia. results the genome of p. jiroveci was revealed by a 346 bp pcr product in the initial amplification and a 120 bp...

background: q fever is an important widespread reemerging zoonosis. the presence of coxiella burnetii in 100 tick-infested dogs was assessed in this study. methods: the blood samples from 100 referred dogs were acquired and evaluated by nested-pcr. results: c. burnetii was detected in 11 out of 100 (11%) blood samples. most of the positive dogs were kept outdoor and fed on raw diet. based on ou...