Cystic Fibrosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Cystic Fibrosis, including details on symptoms, genetics, treatment, information.

Method for detection of respiratory viruses in the sputa of patients with cystic fibrosis.

Punch G, Syrmis MW, Rose BR, Harbour C, Bye PT, Nissen MD, Elkins MR, Sloots TP

Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, University of Sydney, Parramatta Road, Camperdown, New South Wales 2006, Australia.

Since the role of respiratory viruses in lung exacerbations of patients with cystic fibrosis has been hampered by the difficulty of detecting viruses in viscous sputum specimens, a multiplex reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assay combined with colorimetric amplicon detection was tested for the identification of seven common respiratory viruses in the sputa of cystic fibrosis patients. Of 52 sputa from 38 patients, 12 (23%) samples from 12 patients were positive for a respiratory virus (4 for influenza B, 3 for parainfluenza 1, 3 for influenza A and 2 for respiratory syncytial virus). These results suggest that the RT-PCR method carried out on sputum may provide a convenient means of investigating the role of virus infection in lung exacerbations of cystic fibrosis patients.

Published 20 January 2005 in Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis, 24(1): 54-7.
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