Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi in patients with Lyme disease by the polymerase chain reaction.

Abstract

Bendall, Gray rotavirus antigen ELISA (Rotaclone, NovoNordisk, Cambridge) (table). These results suggest that the positive reactions with the latex test were not specific for rotavirus antigen.Latex agglutination tests are generally accepted as having a specificity approaching that of electron microscopy in the diagnosis of rotavirus infection.56 Laboratories that lack the facilities for electron microscopy can rely on this method as the sole test for making the diagnosis of rotavirus infection. A test which confuses haemorrhagic colitis with rotavirus infection could be falsely reassuring to the clinicians caring for the patient, especially when the result is available a day or two before the results of bacteriological investigations. In the light of our results we recommend that positive results with the RotaScreen latex test be confirmed by some other means.We are currently looking at faecal samples collected from other patients with bloody diarrhoea to ascertain the incidence and nature of false positive reactions with this test.

Environmental determinants ofIxodes ricinusticks and the incidence ofBorrelia burgdorferisensu lato, the agent of Lyme borreliosis, in Scotland

“…To confirm that the ticks collected were I. ricinus, 2000 collected nymphs were randomly selected and identified to species level using a light dissecting microscope and species key (Hillyard, 1996). DNA extraction was performed by mechanical destruction of the nymphs and ammonia extraction (Guy and Stanek, 1991;James et al 2011).…”

Methodological Aspects

“…The demonstration of specific DNA in the blood of patients with EM might be hampered by the presence of inhibitors, as only two of five patients were positive by PCR (57). In a second study performed with supernatants of cultures from blood and serum, PCR was negative in all seven patients examined (180).…”

An Alternative and Rapid Method for the Extraction of Nucleic Acids from Ixodid Ticks by Potassium Acetate Procedure

“…In the ammonium hydroxide procedure, the intact ticks were boiled at 100 o C for 15 min in 100 µL of 0.7 M ammonium hydroxide in a heating block. The tubes were cooled at room temperature and left open at 100 o C for 15 min to allow ammonia to evaporate (Guy and Stanek 1991;Rijpkema et al 1996;Humair et al 2007). The extracts were stored at -20 o C until use.…”