تقييم استخدام التفاعل السلسلي للبوليميراز في الزمن الحقيقي لتشخيص داء البروسيلات البشرية

Abstract EN

Brucellosis diagnosis in Syria relies on the presence of compatible symptoms combined with positive agglutination tests’ results.

The detection of Brucella DNA in clinical sample by PCR was recently considered as one of the laboratory criteria for brucellosis diagnosis of CDC and WHO.

Therefore, our study aimed at evaluating this method for the diagnosis of brucellosis, and studying the advantage of applying it when traditional methods fail.

Seventy-six blood samples from patients with clinical indication of acute, relapsed or chronic brucellosis were examined by agglutination tests, culture and real-time PCR.

Brucellosis was detected in 48/76 patients, based on clinical diagnosis and positive laboratory tests’ results.

The sensitivities of agglutination tests, blood culture and real-time PCR in diagnosing acute brucellosis were 86%, 57%, 48%, respectively, and in diagnosing chronic or relapsed brucellosis were 100%, 15%, 4%, respectively.

Three cases were positive by real-time PCR but not by culture or agglutination tests.

Our results showed that real-time PCR could be utilized to support the diagnosis in cases with negative agglutination tests results.