ReviewEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2004
False-positive results and contamination in nucleic acid amplification assays: suggestions for a prevent and destroy strategy.
Review in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Surface contamination with SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review.The Science of the total environment · 2021Pooled it
- Risk of window period hepatitis-C infection in high infectious risk donors: systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons · 2011Pooled it
- Risk of window period HIV infection in high infectious risk donors: systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons · 2011Pooled it
- Combining Asymmetric PCR with PAM-Independent Cas12a Analysis of Single-Stranded Amplicons for On-Site Nucleic Acid Testing.Biosensors · 2026Article
- Development, Characterization, and Validation of an MS2 Phage-Based Armored RNA Control for Schmallenberg Virus Detection.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Recombinant Thermostable DNA Polymerases: Current Approaches to Production, Molecular Engineering, and Applications in Biotechnology and Diagnostics.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- RT-qPCR detection of dsRNA pesticides: Optimization, limitations, and formulation effects.iScience · 2026Article
- Development of a high-copy target enhanced multiplexed crRNA-based, amplification-free detection assay (HiTECT) for Brucella spp.Molecular biology reports · 2026Article
- A One-Pot CRISPR/Cas12a-Based Platform for Contamination-Free Nucleic Acid Amplification Detection.Biosensors · 2026Article
- The role of gastrointestinal PCR in inflammatory bowel disease flares: A double-edged sword or a diagnostic breakthrough?Indian journal of gastroenterology : official journal of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology · 2026Review
- Comprehensive virome analysis ofFrontiers in insect science · 2026Article
- Review
- Urinary 3-methylhistidine as a potential biomarker for sepsis-associated acute kidney injury: multidimensional metabolomics analysis in mice and human.Annals of intensive care · 2025Article
- Recent Advances in Micro- and Nano-Enhanced Intravascular Biosensors for Real-Time Monitoring, Early Disease Diagnosis, and Drug Therapy Monitoring.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Rapid and Sensitive Detection of RNA Viruses through Imaging of Marker Molecules Derived from Designed Circular DNA Probes.Small methods · 2025Article
- Unleashing high trans-substrate cleavage kinetics of Cas12a for nucleic acid diagnostics.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Article
- Electrochemical Aptamer-Based Biosensors for Sepsis Diagnosis: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Future Perspectives (2020-2025).Biosensors · 2025Review
- Article
- Is Osteoarthritis a State of Joint Dysbiosis?Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Contamination of samples with DNA is still a major problem in microbiology laboratories, despite the wide acceptance of PCR and other amplification techniques for the detection of frequently low amounts of target DNA. This review focuses on the implications of contamination in the diagnosis and research of infectious diseases, possible sources of contaminants, strategies for prevention and destruction, and quality control. Contamination of samples in diagnostic PCR can have far-reaching consequences for patients, as illustrated by several examples in this review. Furthermore, it appears that the (sometimes very unexpected) sources of contaminants are diverse (including water, reagents, disposables, sample carry over, and amplicon), and contaminants can also be introduced by unrelated activities in neighboring laboratories. Therefore, lack of communication between researchers using the same laboratory space can be considered a risk factor. Only a very limited number of multicenter quality control studies have been published so far, but these showed false-positive rates of 9-57%. The overall conclusion is that although nucleic acid amplification assays are basically useful both in research and in the clinic, their accuracy depends on awareness of risk factors and the proper use of procedures for the prevention of nucleic acid contamination. The discussion of prevention and destruction strategies included in this review may serve as a guide to help improve laboratory practices and reduce the number of false-positive amplification results.
Indexed as
Identifiers
15015033What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.