Test Enables Early Diagnosis of Chlamydia

Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In addition to urogenital disease, C trachomatis causes trachoma, a chronic, recurrent infection of the conjunctiva and cornea, especially widespread in the tropics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland), 500 million people worldwide are in danger of infection, over 140 million are already infected, and more than six million have been blinded due to chlamydia infection, mostly in developing countries.

The C trachomatis bacterium contains five to 10 copies of a conserved 7.5 kb cryptic plasmid. Using this plasmid as a target enables highly sensitive detection of C trachomatis. However, since plasmid-free C trachomatis bacteria have also been previously detected, conventional tests for C trachomatis that are based solely on detection of the chlamydial cryptic plasmid are not always reliable.

The CE-marked Artus C trachomatis plus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit produced by Qiagen (Hamburg, Germany) detects a region of the ompA gene, which encodes the major outer membrane protein (MOMP), in addition to sequences on the cryptic plasmid.

This highly sensitive, qualitative detection system enables early detection of chlamydia during routine testing, enabling diagnosis of chlamydia infection in the early stages of infection, even with plasmid-free variants of C trachomatis. This is a significant step forward in chlamydia detection, said Dr. Ulrich Spengler, managing director of Qiagen Hamburg GmbH, because serious consequences, such as sterility and blindness, can be prevented by early treatment. In contrast to traditional methods, the Artus C trachomatis plus PCR kit is the only system worldwide that detects both the chlamydial cryptic plasmid and the ompA gene in parallel.

Artus C trachomatis plus PCR kits are ready-to-use reagent systems for detection of C trachomatis DNA by real-time PCR. An internal control, supplied with the kits, serves as a control for DNA purification and to detect false negatives due to possible PCR inhibition. Excellent sensitivity and specificity have been demonstrated during validation of the kits using swab, urine, and sperm samples.



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