Polymerase chain reaction for diagnosis of genital herpes in a genitourinary medicine clinic

Abstract

Background: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has well established advantages over culture for diagnosis of herpes viruses, but its technical complexity has limited its widespread application. However, recent methodological advances have rendered PCR more applicable to routine practice. Aim: To compare automated PCR with viral culture for diagnosis of genital herpes. Methods: We studied 236 patients presenting with clinical features suggestive of genital herpes at an inner city genitourinary medicine clinic. Two swabs were taken from each patient. Cell culture and typing were performed by standard methods. Automated PCR was performed using the LightCycler instrument and the infecting viral type was determined by restriction endonuclease digestion of amplicons. Results: 109 patients (46%) had a positive test for herpes simplex virus (HSV). In 88, both PCR and culture were positive; in 21 PCR only was positive. With both detection methods, lesion duration and morphology were associated with HSV detection. Compared with culture alone, use of PCR increased sensitivity by 13.3% in specimens from vesicular lesions, by 27.4% from ulcerative lesions, and by 20.0% from crusting lesions. Conclusions: We advocate adoption of automated PCR as an efficient HSV detection and typing method for diagnosis of genital herpes in routine clinical practice. PCR allowed rapid laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis and increased the overall HSV detection rate by 24%.

No Evidence of HSV Presence in the Serum of Vitiligo Patients

“…Actually, the detection rate is often influenced by duration of the disease, morphology of the lesions [13,14] Although we failed to detect herpes virus DNA in the serum of patients with vitiligo ( even in serum of acute onset herpes simplex), the relationship between vitiligo and the herpes simplex virus still deserves attention. Other approaches, such as detection of persistent and sensitive markers of HSV activation or HSV specific T cell mediated responses, may aid to define the role of HSV in vitiligo.…”

“…The amplification conditions were 94℃ denaturation for 30 seconds, 55℃ annealing for 30 seconds, 72℃ elongation for 1 minute. After 35 cycles of amplification, the PCR products were ran on 2% agarose gel [12][13][14]. Antibodies against herpes simplex virus in serum of patients were detected by chemiluminescence method using Dia Sorin LIAISON @ …”

Herpes simplex virus infection – survey on knowledge of herpes virus infection among people aged 18–35

“…Testy serologiczne, które umożliwiają stwierdzenie, czy dana osoba miała kontakt z wirusem, mają ograniczone zastosowanie w przypadku zakażenia noworodków. Dostępne testy Western blot oraz metody immunoenzymatyczne pozwalają na odróżnienie przeciwciał przeciwko poszczegól-nym typom wirusa [18,19].…”

The Laboratory Diagnosis of Herpes Simplex Virus Infections

“…As with other molecular diagnostic tests, the sensitivity of PCR is much greater than the gold standard of culture (31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38). The advent of real-time PCR systems, where products are detected in a closed-tube system without any postamplification handling, has minimized the risk of false-positive results by PCR.…”