Rapid detection of urinary tract infections caused by Proteus spp. using PNA-FISH

• Author(s): Almeida, Carina ; Azevedo, N. F. ; Bento, Joana C. ; Cerca, Nuno ; Ramos, H. ; Vieira, M. J. ; Keevil, C. W.
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/24934
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

We developed a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method for the rapid detection of Proteus spp. in urine, using a novel peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Testing on 137 urine samples from patients with urinary tract infections has shown specificity and sensitivity values of 98 % (95 % CI, 93.2–99.7) and 100 % (95 % CI, 80,8–100), respectively, when compared with CHROMagar Orientation medium. Results indicate that PNA-FISH is a reliable alternative to traditional culture methods and can reduce the diagnosis time to approximately 2 h.