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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2006, p. 899-908, Vol. 44, No. 3
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.44.3.899-908.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Two Quality Control Exercises Involving Nucleic Acid Amplification Methods for Detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Carried Out 2 Years Apart (in 2002 and 2004)

Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Department of Medicine, Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen, Universiteitsplein 1 S3, B-2610 Wilrijk Belgium¹

Received 18 July 2005/ Returned for modification 15 September 2005/ Accepted 9 January 2006

The quality performance of laboratories for the detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae by two quality control (QC) exercises with a 2-year interval was investigated. For the 2002 QC exercise, specimens were spiked with M. pneumoniae at concentrations of 5,000, 500, 50, and 0 color-changing units (CCU)/100 µl. The limit of detectability was 50 CCU/100 µl. Therefore, this concentration was omitted from the 2004 panel and was excluded from the analysis. In 2002, 2 out of 12 participants obtained 100% correct results, 2 out of 12 produced false-positive results, and 10 out of 12 had between 0 out of 9 and 8 out of 9 correct positive results. In 2004, correct results were obtained in 15 out of 18 tests, and no false-positive results were reported. In 2002, specimens were spiked with C. pneumoniae at concentrations of 490, 49, 4.9, and 0 inclusion-forming units/100 µl (IFU/100 µl). In the 2004 panel, samples spiked with a lower dilution of 0.49 IFU/100 µl were added to the panel. For the C. pneumoniae QC, correct results were produced in 12 out of 16 and 13 out of 18 tests in 2002 and in 2004, respectively. Both multiplex PCR and nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) formats scored a smaller number of samples positive than the monoplex reactions.

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