Background/Aims: To estimate the clinical value of bacterial detection in peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis (PDAP) by multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This study was undertaken to evaluate multiplex RT-PCR for identifying clinically significant bacteria in PDAP. Methods: Seventy peritoneal dialysate specimens were collected and traditional bacterial culture and universal primer RT-PCR detection of the bacterial were used. Results: The positive rate of traditional culture method was 65.71% (46/70) and that of universal primer RT-PCR was 81.42% (57/70). For 6 clinical commonly pathogenic bacteria, multiplex, and monoplex RT-PCR all detected 38 positive ones within the 57 specimens that were detected positive by universal primer RT-PCR. The results of the 2 methods were completely identical. Detecting bacteria by universal primer PCR and Monoplex RT-PCR needs 4–5 and 6–9 h, respectively, while multiplex RT-PCR needs less than 3 h. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that the multiplex RT-PCR can detect several kinds of bacteria simultaneously and it is also more practical and convenient than monoplex RT-PCR.

Early Diagnosis of Cancers In article 2205445, Shangquan Wu, Qingchuan Zhang, and co‐workers develop an ultra‐sensitive nanomechanical sensor, which uses a magnetic‐driven microcantilever array to selectively detect oncogenic exosomes. The magnetic force produces a far greater deflection of microcantilever than that produced by the intermolecular interaction force, even in the presence of very low concentrations of target substances. This method reduced the detection limit to less than 10 exosomes mL−1.