Diagnosis of Carrion’s Disease by Direct Blood PCR in Thin Blood Smear Negative Samples.

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Authors
Del Valle Mendoza, Juana
Silva-Caso, Wilmer
Tinco Valdez, Carmen
Pons, Maria J.
Del Valle, Luis J.
Casabona Oré, Verónica
Champin Michelena, Denisse
Bazán Mayra, Jorge
Zavaleta Gavidea, Víctor
Vargas, Martha
Issue Date
2014-04-11

Metadata
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Citation
PLoS ONE 9(3): e92283
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Journal
PLoS ONE
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10757/315714
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0092283
Additional Links
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092283
Type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Language
eng
Description
Bartonella bacilliformis is the etiologic agent of Carrion’s disease. This disease has two well established phases, the most relevant being the so called Oroya Fever, in which B. bacilliformis infect the erythrocytes resulting in severe anemia and transient immunosuppression, with a high lethality in the absence of adequate antibiotic treatment. The presence of B. bacilliformis was studied in 113 blood samples suspected of Carrion’s disease based on clinical criteria, despite the absence of a positive thin blood smear, by two different PCR techniques (using Bartonella-specific and universal 16S rRNA gene primers), and by bacterial culture. The specific 16S rRNA gene primers revealed the presence of 21 B. bacilliformis and 1 Bartonella elizabethae, while universal primers showed both the presence of 3 coinfections in which a concomitant pathogen was detected plus Bartonella, in addition to the presence of infections by other microorganisms such as Agrobacterium or Bacillus firmus. These data support the need to implement molecular tools to diagnose Carrion’s disease.
EISSN
1932-6203
Sponsors
This work has been partially supported by Optimus Foundation and by personal funds of JdVM. JR is supported by the program I3, of the ISCIII (grant number: CES11/012) and by ISCIII grant PI11/00983. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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