ArticleMicrobiology spectrum2026
Comparative diagnostic evaluation of real-time PCR and culture for detecting pathogens in podiatric wound infections.
Article in Microbiology spectrum, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Limit of Blank Variability as a Determinant of Analytical Sensitivity in a DNA-Binding Dye-Based Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction for the Detection of Chlamydia pneumoniae.Analytical chemistry · 2026Article
- ΔCt-informed, calibrated logistic regression accurately attributesMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Culture-based wound infection diagnostics have well-recognized limitations in detecting fastidious, anaerobic, or polymicrobial pathogens. This study compared the performance of a PCR wound panel with traditional culture. Dual-swab specimens from 93 clinical wound cases underwent both culture and PCR testing. Analyses included organism-level concordance, Gram stain correlation, and resistance gene detection. Logistic regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and latent class analysis (LCA) were used to evaluate diagnostic performance. Under the conventional (culture-referenced) framework, PCR sensitivity was 98.3% and specificity was 73.5%. LCA (model M3) estimated PCR sensitivity at 95.6% and specificity at 91%. PCR detected 110 clinically significant pathogens missed or ambiguously reported (~30%) by culture. A logistic model incorporating
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.