Duplex PCR Assay Simultaneously Detecting and Differentiating Bartonella quintana, B. henselae, and Coxiella burnetii in Surgical Heart Valve Specimens

摘要

A duplex PCR (dPCR) assay was developed to simultaneously detect and differentiate Bartonella quintana, Bartonella henselae, and Coxiella burnetii from surgical heart valve tissue specimens with an analytic sensitivity of 10 copies/reaction. Among 17 specimens collected from patients with a clinical diagnosis of culture-negative endocarditis, 2, 4, and 2 were positive for B. quintana, B. henselae, and C. burnetii, respectively, by the dPCR assay, which matched the results obtained by universal bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing.