This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sriram, S. Articles by Yamamoto, Y. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sriram, S. Articles by Yamamoto, Y.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2002, p. 1332-1337, Vol. 9, No. 6
1071-412X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.9.6.1332-1337.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparative Study of the Presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Clinically Definite and Monosymptomatic Multiple Sclerosis

Department of Neurology,¹ Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee,² Department of Neurology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland,³ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Florida, College of Medicine, Tampa, Florida⁴

Received 24 June 2002/ Accepted 14 August 2002

There is considerable controversy concerning the evidence for the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of both multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and patients with other neurological diseases (OND). In order to clarify this issue, the laboratories at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the University of South Florida (USF) examined the reproducibility of their respective PCR assays for the detection of C. pneumoniae DNA in the CSF of a common group of MS patients and OND controls. The two laboratories used different DNA extraction and PCR techniques in order to determine the prevalence of the C. pneumoniae genome in both monosymptomatic and clinically definite MS patients as well as in OND controls. In clinically definite MS patients, the VUMC and USF detection rates were 72 and 61%, respectively, and in patients with monosymptomatic MS, the VUMC and USF detection rates were 41 and 54%, respectively. The PCR signal was positive for 7% of the OND controls at VUMC and for 16% at USF. These studies confirm our previous reports concerning the high prevalence of C. pneumoniae in the CSF of MS patients. The presence of C. pneumoniae in patients with monosymptomatic MS would also suggest that infection with the organism occurs early in the course of the disease.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Tondella, M. L. C., Galagoda, G., Gaydos, C. A., Boman, J., Sriram, S., Yao, S., Stratton, C. S., Mitchell, W., Yamamoto, Y. (2003). Is Chlamydia pneumoniae Present in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Multiple Sclerosis Patients?. CVI 10: 977-978 [Full Text]