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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2005, p. 30-35, Vol. 43, No. 1
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.1.30-35.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

External Quality Assessment for Molecular Detection of Bordetella pertussis in European Laboratories

Academisch Ziekenhuis Vrije Universiteit Brussel,¹ ULB-Erasme, Brussels,⁴ Institut de Pathologie et de Génétique, Gerpinnes,² C.H. Régional de la Citadelle, Liège, Belgium,⁹ GG&GD, Municipal Health Laboratory, Amsterdam,³ St. Elisabeth Hospital, Tilburg, The Netherlands,¹⁰ C.H. de Versailles, Le Chesnay,⁵ Institut de Bactériologie, Strasbourg, France,⁸ Health Protection Agency, Respiratory and Systemic Laboratory, Specialist and Reference Microbiology Division, London, United Kingdom,⁶ University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden,⁷ Klinikum Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany,¹¹

Received 8 June 2004/ Returned for modification 30 July 2004/ Accepted 7 September 2004

Although the PCR for the detection of Bordetella pertussis is routinely performed in diagnostic laboratories, no quality assessment program has so far been described. We report on the results obtained with two external quality assessment proficiency panels sent to European laboratories. The first proficiency panel contained a series of dilutions of three previously characterized B. pertussis clinical isolates and two negative controls. No false-positive results were reported by six laboratories providing seven data sets. The reported limits of detection of the three B. pertussis strains varied between 4 and 4,000, 9 and 9,000, and 3 and 30,000 CFU/ml, respectively. The second proficiency panel, composed of a series of dilutions of reference strains of B. pertussis, B. holmesii, B. hinzii, and B. bronchiseptica, as well as negative controls, was sent to nine laboratories. One laboratory reported a negative result for a sample and reported a B. parapertussis-positive sample to be positive for B. pertussis. By using the B. pertussis-specific target gene pertactin, one laboratory detected B. pertussis with 100% specificity. All other laboratories, which used IS481-based assays, reported positive results for the samples containing B. holmesii and B. bronchiseptica, species that have occasionally been recovered from human respiratory samples. These data show that the choice of the target gene is particularly critical for the species specificity of B. pertussis PCR assays.

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