Development and validation of a novel multiplex digital PCR assay for identification of pathogens in cerebrospinal fluid of children with bacterial meningitis

Present and Future Applications of Digital PCR in Infectious Diseases Diagnosis

“…Another recent study on bacterial meningitis demonstrates that a multiplex dPCR designed to detect eight pathogens (Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica) has a very high correlation with conventional culture (94.4% sensitivity, 100% specificity) [41], although the design of the panel, in terms of the microorganisms it detects, is surprising and certainly questionable for a panel designed for the diagnosis of meningitis in humans, and has the additional limitation that it does not establish comparisons with any conventional RT-PCR, which would really be the alternative in terms of technology and speed of results. Some other locations in which, for different reasons (low bacterial load, difficulty of growth in conventional culture media), both conventional bacteriological techniques and RT-PCR offer improvable results can also benefit from the characteristics of dPCR.…”