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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2006, p. 232-235, Vol. 44, No. 1
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.44.1.232-235.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evaluation of Three Diagnostic Methods, Including Real-Time PCR, for Detection of Dientamoeba fragilis in Stool Specimens

Department of Microbiology, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia,¹ Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases, University of Technology Sydney, St. Leonard's Campus, Sydney, Australia,² Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Technology Sydney, St. Leonard's Campus, Sydney, Australia³

Received 16 October 2005/ Accepted 19 October 2005

Dientamoeba fragilis is a protozoan parasite of humans that infects the mucosa of the large intestine and is associated with gastrointestinal disease. We developed a 5' nuclease (TaqMan)-based real-time PCR assay, targeting the small subunit rRNA gene, for the detection of D. fragilis in human stool specimens and compared its sensitivity and specificity to conventional PCR and microscopic examination by a traditional modified iron-hematoxylin staining procedure. Real-time PCR exhibited 100% sensitivity and specificity.