ArticleJournal of clinical microbiology2005
Detection of Balamuthia mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene DNA in clinical specimens by PCR.
Article in Journal of clinical microbiology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pulmonary infection due toASM case reports · 2025Article
- Molecular Diagnosis of Encephalitis/Meningoencephalitis Caused by Free-Living Amoebae from a Tertiary Center in India.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Opportunistic free-living amoebal pathogens.Pathogens and global health · 2022Article
- Balamuthia spinosa n. sp. (Amoebozoa, Discosea) from the brackish-water sediments of Nivå Bay (Baltic Sea, The Sound) - a novel potential vector of Legionella pneumophila in the environment.Parasitology research · 2022Article
- Various brain-eating amoebae: the protozoa, the pathogenesis, and the disease.Frontiers of medicine · 2021Review
- The application of shotgun metagenomics to the diagnosis of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis due to Balamuthia mandrillaris: a case report.BMC neurology · 2021Article
- Article
- Encephalomyelitis Caused byFrontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- First report of the isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris in the northern region of Japan.Parasitology research · 2018Article
- Infectious encephalitis: Management without etiological diagnosis 48hours after onset.Medecine et maladies infectieuses · 2017Review
- Clinical metagenomic identification of Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis and assembly of the draft genome: the continuing case for reference genome sequencing.Genome medicine · 2015Article
- Diagnostic challenges in Balamuthia mandrillaris infections.Parasitology research · 2013Article
- Fatal granulomatous meningoencephalitis associated to mycobacterium mucogenicum-like microorganism: a case report.Puerto Rico health sciences journal · 2009Article
- Diagnosis of infections caused by pathogenic free-living amoebae.Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2009Article
- Detection of Balamuthia mandrillaris DNA by real-time PCR targeting the RNase P gene.BMC microbiology · 2008Article
- Emerging pathogens: challenges and successes of molecular diagnostics.The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD · 2008Review
- Demonstration of Balamuthia and Acanthamoeba mitochondrial DNA in sectioned archival brain and other tissues by the polymerase chain reaction.Parasitology research · 2008Article
- Demonstration of Balamuthia and Acanthamoeba mitochondrial DNA in sectioned archival brain and other tissues by the polymerase chain reaction.Parasitology research · 2008Article
- Balamuthia mandrillaris amebic encephalitis.Current infectious disease reports · 2007Article
- Demonstration of presence of acanthamoeba mitochondrial DNA in brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid by PCR in samples from a patient who died of granulomatous amebic encephalitis.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2007Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Balamuthia mandrillaris is a free-living ameba that causes granulomatous amebic encephalitis in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals. Because of a lack of pathognomonic symptoms and the difficulty in recognizing amebas in biopsied tissues, most cases are not diagnosed or effectively treated, leading to a >95% mortality. We report here on five cases of balamuthiasis that were diagnosed by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) staining of serum for anti-Balamuthia antibodies (titer > or = 1:128) and confirmed by IIF of unstained brain tissue sections and/or detection of amebas in hematoxylin-eosin-stained slides. Additionally, we have used the PCR for the detection of mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene DNA from the ameba in clinical specimens such as brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from individuals with Balamuthia encephalitis. Balamuthia DNA was successfully detected by the PCR in clinical samples from all five individuals. It was detected in brain tissue from three cases, in CSF from three cases, and in one of two samples of lung tissue from two individuals, but not in two samples of kidney tissue tested. One sample of unfixed brain tissue was culture positive for Balamuthia. In order to test the sensitivity of the PCR for detection of Balamuthia DNA, CSF specimens from two individuals negative for amebic infection were spiked with Balamuthia amebas. We found that it was possible to detect Balamuthia DNA in the PCR mixtures containing mitochondrial DNA from 1 to as little as 0.2 ameba per reaction mixture. A single Balamuthia ameba contains multiple mitochondrial targets; thus, 0.2 ameba represents multiple targets for amplification and is not equivalent to 0.2 of an ameba as a target.
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