DETECTION OF CHLAMYDIA TRACHOMATIS IN
NEONATAL PNEUMONIA BY LIGASE CHAIN REACTION (LCR)
Wu S,
Wei H
Children’s Hospital, Chongqing Medical College,
Chongqing, China
Objective: To
establish a sensitive and special method for the detection of Chlamydia
trachomatis in neonatal pneumonia using
ligase chain reaction (LCR).
Methods: Nasopharyngeal
swabs from 328 cases of neonatal pneumonia were assayed. Two pairs of
probes of chlamydial outer membrane protein gene were used to amplify the
Chlamydia trachomatis DNA using LCR. The amplified products were detected
by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the results were compared with
cell culture.
Results: A
method of LCR for detection CT DNA was established. the morbidity among the
328 cases of neonatal pneumoia was 20.4%（67/328）. Compared with “gold standard”, the
sensitivity and specificity of LCR is 97.1% and 100% respectively.
Conclusions: These
results showed that LCR of nasopharyngeal samples provided higher
sensitivity than cell culture, it is rapid, sensitive, specific ,and is of
value in clinical application.