Biomaterial Database

A comparison of ligase chain reaction to polymerase chain reaction in the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis endocervical infections. 1998

J D Davis, and P K Riley, and C W Peters, and K H Rand

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville 32610-0294, USA. davisjd@obgyn.med.ufl.edu

OBJECTIVE To compare the reliability of ligase chain reaction (LCR) to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in detecting Chlamydia trachomatis endocervical infections. METHODS We conducted a prospective study of 486 patients at risk for chlamydial infection of the endocervix. We obtained two endocervical specimens from each patient and used LCR and PCR to detect C. trachomatis. Discrepant results between the two techniques were resolved by repeat testing and by testing for the major outer membrane protein (MOMP) gene, if necessary. We determined the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for each test, using concordant results or MOMP gene results as the "gold standard". RESULTS Of the 486 patients, 42 (8.6%) had evidence of C. trachomatis infection after resolution of discrepant results. Of the 42 true positive specimens, 41 were positive by initial LCR and 38 were positive by initial PCR. Of the 444 true negative specimens, none had a positive initial LCR result, while 2 had a positive initial PCR test. Therefore, compared to the gold standard, LCR had a sensitivity of 97.6% and specificity of 100%, while PCR had a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 99.5%. The positive and negative predictive values of LCR were 100% and 99.8%, respectively. PCR had a positive predictive value of 95% and a negative predictive value of 99.1%. The difference in sensitivity of LCR versus PCR was not statistically significant (P = .125). CONCLUSIONS LCR and PCR perform equally well in detecting C. trachomatis endocervical infections.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D011446	Prospective Studies	Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.	Prospective Study,Studies, Prospective,Study, Prospective
D002577	Uterine Cervical Diseases	Pathological processes of the UTERINE CERVIX.	Cervix Diseases,Cervical Disease, Uterine,Cervical Diseases, Uterine,Cervix Disease,Disease, Cervix,Disease, Uterine Cervical,Diseases, Cervix,Diseases, Uterine Cervical,Uterine Cervical Disease
D002690	Chlamydia Infections	Infections with bacteria of the genus CHLAMYDIA.	Infections, Chlamydia,Chlamydia Infection,Infection, Chlamydia
D002692	Chlamydia trachomatis	Type species of CHLAMYDIA causing a variety of ocular and urogenital diseases.
D004269	DNA, Bacterial	Deoxyribonucleic acid that makes up the genetic material of bacteria.	Bacterial DNA
D005260	Female		Females
D005784	Gene Amplification	A selective increase in the number of copies of a gene coding for a specific protein without a proportional increase in other genes. It occurs naturally via the excision of a copy of the repeating sequence from the chromosome and its extrachromosomal replication in a plasmid, or via the production of an RNA transcript of the entire repeating sequence of ribosomal RNA followed by the reverse transcription of the molecule to produce an additional copy of the original DNA sequence. Laboratory techniques have been introduced for inducing disproportional replication by unequal crossing over, uptake of DNA from lysed cells, or generation of extrachromosomal sequences from rolling circle replication.	Amplification, Gene
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D016133	Polymerase Chain Reaction	In vitro method for producing large amounts of specific DNA or RNA fragments of defined length and sequence from small amounts of short oligonucleotide flanking sequences (primers). The essential steps include thermal denaturation of the double-stranded target molecules, annealing of the primers to their complementary sequences, and extension of the annealed primers by enzymatic synthesis with DNA polymerase. The reaction is efficient, specific, and extremely sensitive. Uses for the reaction include disease diagnosis, detection of difficult-to-isolate pathogens, mutation analysis, genetic testing, DNA sequencing, and analyzing evolutionary relationships.	Anchored PCR,Inverse PCR,Nested PCR,PCR,Anchored Polymerase Chain Reaction,Inverse Polymerase Chain Reaction,Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction,PCR, Anchored,PCR, Inverse,PCR, Nested,Polymerase Chain Reactions,Reaction, Polymerase Chain,Reactions, Polymerase Chain