Semiquantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Enzyme Immunoassay for the Diagnosis of Pertussis

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Abstract
The two most commonly used targets for diagnosis of pertussis by the polymerase chain reaction have been the pertussis toxin promoter and the repeated insertion sequence IS481. A comparative assessment of these primers was performed on routinely collected nasopharyngeal swabs, stored at –20 °C, using novel semiquantitative enzyme immunoassays. Both sets of primers behaved similarly with bacterial suspensions, and the 17 culture-positive nasopharyngeal swabs were also positive with the pertussis toxin promoter primers, with one exception, which had been subject to prolonged storage. Significantly more of the 69 culture-negative swabs were positive with the pertussis toxin promoter primers (n=36) than with the IS481 primers (n=18). To determine the effect of inhibitors, a comparative assessment of three primer pairs against human DNA (β-globin and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) was also performed.

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