Molecular Diagnosis of Infective Endocarditis in Turkey

The identification rate of the organisms causing infective endocarditis (IE) is significantly lower in Turkey than in developed countries. Moreover, most centres have not included essential microbiological tests in their routine practice yet [1]. This gave reason for the relevant specialist organizations to establish a consensus report and give some recommendations on standardized processes.

For diagnostic purposes, the inoculation of three sets of blood cultures, aerobic and anaerobic, from blood drawn at 30 minutes intervals is endorsed. For excised valve tissue, microbiological and histopathological evaluation should be performed.

But when patients have received previous antibiotic therapy or the cultures are negative, molecular identification of the pathogens from whole blood is recommended by either multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or broad-range bacterial (16S) and fungal (18S) PCR followed by sequencing. Specifically named are SeptiFast (Roche, Switzerland) as Multiplex PCR and SepsiTest™-UMD (Molzym, Germany) as broad-range 16S and 18S molecular diagnostics test kits.

SepsiTest™-UMD is not limited to a specific number of targets and can identify common as well as rare pathogens. Besides whole blood, SepsiTest™-UMD can be used for tissue samples and swabs allowing e.g. the identification from excised heart valves.

Note: The unique microbial DNA enrichment and isolation can be automated on the SelectNA™plus instrument in combination with the Micro-Dx™ kit including the same diversity of specimens and broad-range 16S and 18S analysis.

Learn more about Molzym’s direct molecular diagnostic tests here.

Download Application Note                 SepsiTest™-UMD             Micro-Dx™