Abstract

Purpose
In recent years, various diagnostic methods, including culture, immunological detection, conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods, and microarray experiment have been applied for detection of Mycoplasma genitalium and Ureaplasma urealyticum infection. We assayed results of real time PCR and culture of variable clinical samples and evaluated various diagnostic indexes for assessing the clinical usefulness of the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit (Bioneer Corp.) for detection of U. urealyticum/parvum. Materials and Methods: We surveyed 111 results of culture test and antibiotic sensitivity test of Ureaplasma spp. that were requested to the department of laboratory medicine, National Police Hospital from January to April 2011. The specimens of Ureaplasma spp. were collected from 97 uterine cervical swab samples, 13 urine samples, and one expressed prostate secretion sample. Real-time PCR and culture methods were performed using the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit (Bioneer Corp.) and Mycoplasma IST2 Kit (BioMérieux). Results: The real-time PCR results showed that 80 clinical specimens were infected with U. urealyticum/parvum. These results were compared with those confirmed by microbiological culture. Compared with the culture, the diagnostic indexes (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value) of Accupower UU Real-Time PCR were 88.6%, 38.8%, 48.8%, and 83.9%, and the concordance between the Accupower UU Real-Time PCR Kit and the microbiological culture method was 58.5%. Conclusions: Accupower UU Real-Time PCR is a very valuable technique which can process analysis of a massive number of samples with high speed, high sensitivity and specificity, and a high detection rate, particularly for Ureaplasma spp.

• Keywords: Real-time polymerase chain reaction; <;EM>;Ureaplasma urealyticum<;/EM>;; <;EM>;Ureaplasma parvum<;/EM>;; Culture