IDENTIFICATION OF PATHOGENS IN BODY FLUIDS BY MASS SPECTROMETRIC MEASUREMENTS

摘要

The invention relates to the identification of infectious pathogens,particularly viruses, bacteria and othermicroor-ganisms. The invention provides a method whereby pathogens of acuteinfections can be identified, without first culturing them inexternal nutrient media, by mass spectrometric measurement of their proteinprofiles obtained from pathogens directly precipitatedfrom body fluid into pellets by centrifuging. With this method, pathogenswhich cause acute infections can be identified in less thanone hour.