Analytical Evaluation of the Abbott RealTime CT/NG Assay for Detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Rectal and Pharyngeal Swabs.

Abstract

Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections in the rectum and pharynx are important extragenital reservoirs of infection. Few assays approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are commercially available to diagnose pharyngeal or rectal infections. The current study reports on the analytical performance of the Abbott RealTime CT/NG assay, including the limit of detection, inclusivity, and analytical specificity for C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae in rectal and pharyngeal specimens. The limit of detection was performed using known concentrations of organisms, elementary bodies per milliliter (EB/mL) for C. trachomatis and colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) for N. gonorrhoeae, in clinical rectal and pharyngeal swab matrices. Inclusivity was performed against 12 serovars of C. trachomatis and seven strains of N. gonorrhoeae. The analytical specificity was performed using 28 different bacteria and viruses. The limit of detection for C. trachomatis was 2.56 EB/mL in pharyngeal specimens and 12.8 EB/mL in rectal specimens. The limit of detection for N. gonorrhoeae was 0.0256 CFU/mL for both pharyngeal and rectal specimens. The inclusivity and analytical specificity were 100% for both rectal and pharyngeal specimens. These analytical performance data demonstrate that the Abbott CT/NG RealTime assay is an accurate, sensitive, and specific assay in rectal and pharyngeal specimens, supporting the potential of the assay for detection of rectal and pharyngeal C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae infections.

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Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1016/j.jmoldx.2020.03.004

Publication Info

Adamson, Paul C, Mark W Pandori, Sarah B Doernberg, Lauren Komarow, Zoe Sund, Thuy Tien T Tran, David Jensen, Ephraim L Tsalik, et al. (2020). Analytical Evaluation of the Abbott RealTime CT/NG Assay for Detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Rectal and Pharyngeal Swabs. The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD, 22(6). pp. 811–816. 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2020.03.004 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/21652.

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Scholars@Duke

Tsalik

Ephraim Tsalik

Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine

My research at Duke has focused on understanding the dynamic between host and pathogen so as to discover and develop host-response markers that can diagnose and predict health and disease.  This new and evolving approach to diagnosing illness has the potential to significantly impact individual as well as public health considering the rise of antibiotic resistance.

With any potential infectious disease diagnosis, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine at the time of presentation what the underlying cause of illness is.  For example, acute respiratory illness is among the most frequent reasons for patients to seek care. These symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, and fever may be due to a bacterial infection, viral infection, both, or a non-infectious condition such as asthma or allergies.  Given the difficulties in making the diagnosis, most patients are inappropriately given antibacterials.  However, each of these etiologies (bacteria, virus, or something else entirely) leaves a fingerprint embedded in the host’s response. We are very interested in finding those fingerprints and exploiting them to generate new approaches to understand, diagnose, and manage disease.

These principles also apply to sepsis, defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Just as with acute respiratory illness, it is often difficult to identify whether infection is responsible for a patient’s critical illness.  We have embarked on a number of research programs that aim to better identify sepsis; define sepsis subtypes that can be used to guide future clinical research; and to better predict sepsis outcomes.  These efforts have focused on many systems biology modalities including transcriptomics, miRNA, metabolomics, and proteomics.  Consequently, our Data Science team has utilized these highly complex data to develop new statistical methods, furthering both the clinical and statistical research communities.

These examples are just a small sampling of the breadth of research Dr. Tsalik and his colleagues have conducted.  

In April 2022, Dr. Tsalik has joined Danaher Diagnostics as the VP and Chief Scientific Officer for Infectious Disease, where he is applying this experience in biomarkers and diagnostics to shape the future of diagnostics in ID. 


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