Purpose: The diagnosis of leptomeningeal metastases is usually confirmed by the finding of malignant cells by cytologic examination in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). More sensitive and specific cancer biomarkers may improve the detection of tumor cells in the CSF. Promoter methylation of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene characterizes most cancer cells. The aim of this stu...

BACKGROUND Hookworm infections are still endemic in low and middle income tropical countries with greater impact on the socioeconomic and public health of the bottom billion of the world's poorest people. In this study, a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) coupled with high resolution melting-curve (HRM) analysis was evaluated for an accurate, rapid and sensitive tool for species identif...

North African gundis (Ctenodactylus gundi) were trapped in the Leishmania (L.) tropica focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis, situated in southeast Tunisia and evaluated for Leishmania infection by real-time kinetoplast DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Species identification was performed by internal transcribed spacer one (ITS1)-PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and high-resol...

BACKGROUND Porcine parvovirus (PPV) is the important causative agent for infectious infertility, which is a fairly tough virus that multiplies normally in the intestine of pigs without causing clinical signs in the world. RESULTS We developed an assay integrating real-time PCR and high resolution melting (HRM) analysis for the detection of PPV. Primers targeting the VP gene were highly specif...

PURPOSE The prognosis of people infected with Fungi especially immunocompromised depends on rapid and accurate diagnosis to capitalize on time administration of specific treatments. However, cultures produce false negative results and nucleic-acid amplification techniques require complex post-amplification procedures to differentiate relevant fungal types. The objective of this work was to deve...

We have developed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) nucleated high-resolution melting (HRM) technique to genotype Enterococcus faecium. Eight SNPs were derived from the E. faecium multilocus sequence typing (MLST) database and amplified fragments containing these SNPs were interrogated by HRM. We tested the HRM genotyping scheme on 85 E. faecium bloodstream isolates and compared the result...

In the United States, the production of the Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) is an important mechanism of carbapenem resistance in Gram-negative pathogens. Infections with KPC-producing organisms are associated with increased morbidity and mortality; therefore, the rapid detection of KPC-producing pathogens is critical in patient care and infection control. We developed a real-time PCR...

OBJECTIVES Rapid and accurate detection of Brucella abortus and Brucella melitensis from clinical samples is so important because antibiotic treatment has major side effects. This study reveals a new method in detection of clinical samples of brucellosis using real-time PCR and high-resolution melt (HRM) curve analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS 160 brucellosis suspicious samples with more than 1...