Percent positive rate of Lyme real-time polymerase chain reaction in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, and tissue

Received 12 June 2008; accepted 19 August 2008. published online 23 October 2008.

Abstract

We performed a retrospective review of 23,777 specimens tested by our Lyme real-time polymerase chain reaction assay to determine the percent positive rates by specimen source. The percent positive rates were highest in synovial fluid (6.4%) and tissue (6.5%), and lowest in blood (0.1%) and cerebrospinal fluid (0.09%).

Keywords: Lyme, PCR, Blood, Cerebrospinal fluid, Synovial fluid

a Division of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA

b Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-507-538-1640; fax: +1-507-266-4341.

The present study was presented in part at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, MA, June 1-5, 2008 (Abstract C-052).

PII: S0732-8893(08)00377-5

doi:10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2008.08.016

23 of 28