ArticleEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2006
Pneumolysin polymerase chain reaction for diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia and empyema in children.
Article in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00867841 (A Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Method to Improve Antibiotic Prescribing for Children and Adolescents With Community-Acquired Pneumonia - a Pilot Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
A Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Method to Improve Antibiotic Prescribing for Children and Adolescents With Community-Acquired Pneumonia - a Pilot Study
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comparison of Molecular Methods With Culture for Identifying Microbial Etiology in Pediatric Empyema Thoracis: A Systematic Review of Diagnostic Test Accuracy.Indian pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Evidence-Based Guideline on Prioritized Issues for the Management of Empyema Thoracis in Children.Indian pediatrics · 2026Guideline
- Complicated pneumococcal pneumonia in the era of higher-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, 2001-2022.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- The management of community-acquired pneumonia in infants and children older than 3 months of age: clinical practice guidelines by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2011Guideline
- PCR using blood for diagnosis of invasive pneumococcal disease: systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2010Pooled it
- Serotype 3 is a common serotype causing invasive pneumococcal disease in children less than 5 years old, as identified by real-time PCR.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2012Article
- Bacterial causes of empyema in children, Australia, 2007-2009.Emerging infectious diseases · 2011Article
- Interpreting assays for the detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2011Review
- Molecular analysis improves pathogen identification and epidemiologic study of pediatric parapneumonic empyema.The Pediatric infectious disease journal · 2011Article
- DNA bacterial load in children and adolescents with pneumococcal pneumonia and empyema.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2011Article
- recA-based PCR assay for accurate differentiation of Streptococcus pneumoniae from other viridans streptococci.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2011Article
- Usefulness of pneumococcal antigen detection in pleural effusion for the rapid diagnosis of infection by Streptococcus pneumoniae.European journal of pediatrics · 2010Article
- Molecular detection methods and serotyping performed directly on clinical samples improve diagnostic sensitivity and reveal increased incidence of invasive disease by Streptococcus pneumoniae in Italian children.Journal of medical microbiology · 2008Article
- Detection of 11 common viral and bacterial pathogens causing community-acquired pneumonia or sepsis in asymptomatic patients by using a multiplex reverse transcription-PCR assay with manual (enzyme hybridization) or automated (electronic microarray) detection.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2008Article
- Survey of childhood empyema in Asia: implications for detecting the unmeasured burden of culture-negative bacterial disease.BMC infectious diseases · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most important cause of childhood pneumonia and empyema, yet the diagnosis of pneumococcal infections by conventional methods is challenging. In this study, the clinical value of the pneumolysin-targeted real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for the diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia and empyema was evaluated with 33 whole blood samples and 12 pleural fluid samples. The analytical sensitivity of the PCR assay was 4 fg of pneumococcal DNA, corresponding to two genome equivalents of pneumococcal DNA per reaction. The PCR assay correctly detected all clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae tested, whereas all nonpneumococcal bacterial organisms tested were negative by PCR. In a clinical trial, S. pneumoniae was detected by PCR in the pleural fluid of 75% of children with empyema, increasing the detection rate of pneumococcus almost tenfold that of pleural fluid culture. However, in whole blood samples, PCR detected S. pneumoniae in only one child with pneumonia and one child with pneumococcal empyema and failed to detect S. pneumoniae in three children with blood cultures positive for S. pneumoniae. The present data indicate that pneumolysin-targeted real-time PCR of pleural fluid is a valuable method for the etiologic diagnosis of pneumococcal empyema in children. The ease and rapidity of the LightCycler technology (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) make real-time PCR an applicable tool for routine diagnostics. In the evaluation of blood samples, blood culture remains the superior method for the diagnosis of bacteremic pneumococcal disease.
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