Proficiency of PCR in hospital settings for nonculture diagnosis of invasive meningococcal infections.

Eva Hong (1, 2) , Olivier Barraud (3) , Philippe Bidet (4) , Edouard Bingen (4) , Nicolas Blondiaux (5) , Stéphane Bonacorsi (5) , Christophe Burucoa (6) , Amélie Carrer (7) , Nicolas Fortineau (7) , Gérard Couetdic (8) , René Courcol (5) , Fabien Garnier (3) , Geneviève Hery-Arnaud (5) , Philippe Lanotte (9, 10) , Hervé Le Bars (11, 12) , Marie-Christine Legrand-Quillien (13) , Ludovic Lemée (14) , Laurent Mereghetti (10, 9) , Chantal Millardet (8) , Jacques Minet (15, 12) , Chloé Plouzeau-Jayle (6) , Jean-Louis Pons (14) , Jacqueline Schneider (8) , Muhamed-Kheir Taha (1, 2)

1 CNR - Centre National de Référence des Méningocoques et Haemophilus influenzae - National Reference Center Meningococci and Haemophilus influenzae
2 Infections Bactériennes Invasives
3 Service de Bactériologie, Virologie, Hygiène [CHU Limoges]
4 Hôpital Robert Debré
5 Pôle de Pathologie - Centre de Biologie Pathologie [CHRU Lille]
6 CHU Poitiers - Centre hospitalier universitaire de Poitiers
7 AP-HP Hôpital Bicêtre (Le Kremlin-Bicêtre)
8 Hôpital JeanMinjoz
9 Service de bactériologie-virologie [Tours]
10 UMR ISP - Infectiologie et Santé Publique
11 HITC - Service d'Hématologie, Immunologie et de Thérapie Cellulaire
12 CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes]
13 CHRU Brest - Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Brest
14 CHU Rouen
15 Microbiologie : Risques Infectieux

BACKGROUND: Meningococcal meningitis requires rapid diagnosis and immediate management which is enhanced by the use of PCR for the ascertainment of these infections. However, its use is still restricted to reference laboratories. METHODS: We conducted an inter-laboratory study to assess the implementation and the performance of PCR in ten French hospital settings in 2010. RESULTS: Our data are in favour of this implementation. Although good performance was obtained in identifying Neisseria meningitidis positive samples, the main issue was reported in identifying other species (Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae) which are also involved in bacterial meningitis cases. CONCLUSIONS: Several recommendations are required and, mainly, PCR should target the major etiological agents (N. meningitidis, S. pneumonia, and H. influenzae) of acute bacterial meningitis. Moreover, PCR should predict the most frequent serogroups of Neisseria meningitidis according to local epidemiology.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Microbiologie et Parasitologie

Eva Hong, Olivier Barraud, Philippe Bidet, Edouard Bingen, Nicolas Blondiaux, et al.. Proficiency of PCR in hospital settings for nonculture diagnosis of invasive meningococcal infections.. Clinical Laboratory, 2012, 58 (3-4), pp.343-6. ⟨hal-00738980⟩