Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
10
pubmed:dateCreated
1997-11-20
pubmed:abstractText
Cerebral toxoplasmosis is a common, opportunistic, and often life-threatening disease in HIV-infected patients. Diagnosis is supported mainly by clinical evidence and computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scans, but brain images may share features with other brain diseases occurring in HIV-infected patients. To determine the diagnostic value of PCR for the detection of Toxoplasma gondii in blood from HIV-infected patients, we examined 89 blood samples from 59 HIV-infected patients. PCR and Southern blot hybridization were done with DNA extracted from blood samples from 20 patients with confirmed cerebral toxoplasmosis and from 10 patients with suspected but not confirmed cerebral toxoplasmosis. The samples were taken before and 7 to 10 days after the beginning of antiparasitic therapy. For 9 patients who suffered from cerebral toxoplasmosis more than 6 months prior to the study and for 20 patients without any evidence for toxoplasmosis only one blood sample per patient was examined. PCR gave positive results with 5 of the 20 blood samples from patients who suffered from cerebral toxoplasmosis. After 7 to 10 days of therapy PCR results became negative in all these five cases. No amplification was seen with DNA from blood samples from the other 54 patients as the target. The results presented here show that PCR testing of blood samples from HIV-infected patients is of limited value for the diagnosis of cerebral toxoplasmosis. The sensitivity was only 25%, but the specificity was very high (100%), so this technique may be useful for discriminating between cerebral toxoplasmosis and other brain diseases which may be mistaken for toxoplasmosis.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1291318, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1430262, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1452673, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1452701, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1467632, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1563381, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1570184, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1740299, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-1939564, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-2071911, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-2768467, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7494017, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7494040, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7544741, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7650210, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7852576, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-7888118, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8349765, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8365812, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8408550, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8432803, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8473761, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8483889, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8507757, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8511517, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8568525, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/9316922-8603948
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Oct
pubmed:issn
0095-1137
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
35
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
2639-41
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-11-18
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1997
pubmed:articleTitle
Limited value of PCR for detection of Toxoplasma gondii in blood from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Cologne, Germany. Caspar.Franzen@Uni-Koeln.DE
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Clinical Trial