[Diagnosis of viral respiratory infections]

Assessment of NS1 gene-specific real time quantitative TaqMan PCR for the detection of Human Bocavirus in respiratory samples

Human Bocaviruses (HBoV) were associated with respiratory diseases. Here, we assessed a TaqMan^®-based PCR for the detection of all four HBoV subtype infections with a sensitivity up to 15 copies/reaction. To evaluate this assay on clinical samples, 178 nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens from pediatric cases were analyzed and HBoV genome was detected in 13 out of 178 patients with a viral load range between 1.6 × 10³ and 9.4 × 10⁷ copies/ml. These results indicated that this method could be used as an alternative technique for the diagnosis of HBoV infection.

[Does the nasopharyngeal samples virological analysis reflect the lower respiratory tract infection in children population? A PCR multiplex study]

Respiratory tract infections are frequent in young children and are related to viruses in most cases. Multiplex Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques are valuable tools for describing the spectrum of such viruses. The goal of this study was to assess the correlation of virus detection in samples obtained by nasopharyngeal aspiration and by bronchoalveolar lavage. Both samples were taken at the same time in 30 children with lower respiratory tract infection, and were analyzed by multiplex virus PCR (xTAG™ RVP). A strong correlation has been found (P = 0.0002) and the most frequently isolated virus was the entero-rhinovirus spp. These results strengthen the opinion that viruses colonize both the upper and lower respiratory tract. Nasopharyngeal samples should be sufficient to the diagnosis of lower respiratory tract viral infection in immuno-competent children.