Skip Navigation Links.
American Journal of Clinical Medicine Research. 2014, 2(1), 8-13
DOI: 10.12691/AJCMR-2-1-3
Review Article

Molecular Diagnostic Methods and Their Application to Patient Care: Clinical Microbiologist’s Perspective

K V Ramana1,

1Department of Microbiology, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, Andhrapradesh, India

Pub. Date: January 16, 2014
Full Text PDF

Cite this paper

K V Ramana. Molecular Diagnostic Methods and Their Application to Patient Care: Clinical Microbiologist’s Perspective. American Journal of Clinical Medicine Research. 2014; 2(1):8-13. doi: 10.12691/AJCMR-2-1-3

Abstract

In the era of Human Immunodeficiency virus, emerging and re-emerging of various microbial infections, the status of a clinical microbiology laboratory performance is different in the developed and developing nations. On the one side application of rapid, accurate and advanced molecular laboratory techniques have contributed to better diagnosis, patient care and management in developed nations, the developing and economically weak countries are still plagued by ill equipped and undertrained laboratory personnel unable to afford the cost associated with acquiring infrastructure and man power. Clinical microbiology laboratories in the developing nations should be revolutionized so as to improve patient care and to contribute effectively in the control of infectious disease epidemics and pandemics that are of public health importance.

Keywords

clinical microbiology, molecular methods, point of care, rapid and accurate laboratory testing

Copyright

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]  World Health Organization (WHO). The world health report 2004-changing history. Geneva: WHO, 2004. Available at: http:// www.who.int/whr/2004/en/index.html. Last Accessed 6 February 2013.
 
[2]  Mosammaparast N, McAdam AJ, Nolte FS. Molecular testing for infectious diseases should be done in the clinical microbiology laboratory. J Clin Microbiol. 2012 Jun; 50 (6): 1836-40. Epub 2012 Mar 14.
 
[3]  Brzozowski AK, Silk BJ, Berkelman RL, Loveys DA, Caliendo AM. Use, location, and timeliness of clinical microbiology testing in Georgia for select infectious diseases. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2012 Jul-Aug; 18 (4): E4-E10.
 
[4]  Cathy A. Petti, Christopher R. Polage, Thomas C. Quinn, Allan R. Ronald, and Merle A. Sande Laboratory Medicine in Africa: A Barrier to Effective Health Care. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2006; 42: 377-82.
 
[5]  K V Ramana, Sateesh K Reddy, Sanjeev D Rao and Anand Kalaskar. Seroprevalence of blood-borne viral infections in post HAART era at a tertiary care hospital in south India: A five year trend analysis (2008-2012) and a comprehensive review. British Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 2013; 3 (4): 1929-1937.
 
[6]  Ramana KV. Intestinal parasitic infections: An overview. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2012; 5: 279-81.
 
[7]  Ramana KV, Kranti PG. Conventional microscopy versus molecular and immunological methods in the diagnosis of amoebiasis. Ann Med Health Sci Res 2012; 2: 211-2 PMID: 23437420; PMCID: 3573523.
 
[8]  Rodrigues C, Shetty A. Newer methods for microbiologic diagnosis of pediatric infections. Indian J Pediatr. 2011 Feb; 78 (2): 185-91. Epub 2010 Nov 17.
 
[9]  Sibley CD, Peirano G, Church DL. Molecular methods for pathogen and microbial community detection and characterization: current and potential application in diagnostic microbiology. Sibley CD, Peirano G, Church DL. 2012 Apr; 12 (3): 505-21. Epub 2012 Feb 9.
 
[10]  Muldrew KL. Molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2009 Feb; 21 (1): 102-11.
 
[11]  Mikhailovich V, Gryadunov D, Kolchinsky A, Makarov AA, Zasedatelev A. DNA microarrays in the clinic: infectious diseases. Bioessays. 2008 Jul; 30 (7): 673-82.
 
[12]  Wallace PS, MacKay WG. Quality in the molecular microbiology laboratory. Methods Mol Biol. 2013; 943: 49-79.
 
[13]  Holden MJ, Madej RM, Minor P, Kalman LV. Molecular diagnostics: harmonization through reference materials, documentary standards and proficiency testing. Expert Rev Mol Diagn. 2011 Sep; 11 (7): 741-55.
 
[14]  Ramana KV, Prakash GK. Mystery behind emergence and re-emergence of Chikungunya virus. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2009; 2: 1-3.
 
[15]  Ramana KV. Application of molecular over immunological techniques in rapid diagnosis of viral infections. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2008; 1: 33.
 
[16]  David Metzgar. Adaptive evolution of diagnostic resistance. J Clin Microbiol 2011; 49 (7): 2774-2775.
 
[17]  Chen Chen, Wen Zhang, Han Zheng, Ruiting Lan, Haiyin Wang, Pengcheng Du, et al., Minimum Core Genome Sequence Typing of Bacterial Pathogens: a Unified Approach for Clinical and Public Health Microbiology. J Clin Microbiol 2013; 51 (8): 2582-2591.
 
[18]  Alison J. Cody, Noel D. McCarthy, Melissa Jansen van Rensburg, Tomide Isinkaye, Stephen D. Bentley, et al. Real-Time Genomic Epidemiological Evaluation of Human Campylobacter Isolates by Use of Whole-Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing. J Clin Microbiol 2013; 51 (8): 2526-2534.
 
[19]  Humphreys H, Nagy E, Kahlmeter G, Ruijs GJ.The need for European professional standards and the challenges facing clinical microbiology. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2010 Jun; 29 (6): 617-21. Epub 2010 Mar 24.
 
[20]  Shinde SB, Fernandes CB, Patravale VB. Recent trends in in-vitro nanodiagnostics for detection of pathogens. J Control Release. 2012 Apr 30; 159 (2): 164-80. Epub 2011 Dec 13.
 
[21]  Alex van Belkum, Martin Welker, Marcel Erhard, and Sonia Chatellier. Biomedical Mass Spectrometry in Today’s and Tomorrow’s Clinical Microbiology Laboratories. J Clin Microbiol 2012; 50 (5): 1513-1517.
 
[22]  Cohen-Bacrie S, Ninove L, Nougaire` de A, Charrel R, Richet H, et al. (2011) Revolutionizing Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Organization in Hospitals with In Situ Point-of-Care. PLoS ONE 6 (7): e22403.
 
[23]  Tina Ganzenmueller, Jeanette Kluba, Birgit Hilfrich, Wolfram Puppe, Willem Verhagen, Albert Heim, Thomas Schulz and Cornelia Henke-Gendo. Comparison of the performance of direct fluorescent antibody staining, a point-of-care rapid antigen test and virus isolation with that of RT-PCR for the detection of novel 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus in respiratory specimens. Journal of Medical Microbiology (2010), 59, 713-717.
 
[24]  S Bhattacharya, AS Mondal. Clinical microbiology in the intensive care unit: strategic and operational characteristics. Ind J Med Microbiol 2010; 28 (1): 5-10.
 
[25]  Ramana KV, Mohanty SK, Wilson CG. Staphylococcus aureus colonization of anterior nares of school going children. Indian J Pediatr. 2009 Aug; 76 (8): 813-6.
 
[26]  Kalaskar A, Vramana K. Determination of Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern and Production of Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases amongst Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae from Clinical Isolates. J Med Bacteriol. 2012; 1 (2): pp.17-24.
 
[27]  Ramana, K V, Sabitha Kandi, Venkata Bharatkumar P, CH V Sharada, Ratna Rao, Ratna Mani, and Sanjeev D Rao, “Invasive Fungal Infections: A Comprehensive Review.” American Journal of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology 1, no. 4 (2013): 64-69.
 
[28]  Nima Mosammaparast and Fredericvk S. Nolte. Molecular Testing for Infectious Diseases Should Be Done in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. J clin Microbiol 2012; 50 (6): 1836-1840.
 
[29]  Ellen Jo Baron. Implications of new technology for infectious diseases practice. Clin Infect Dis 2006; 43: 1318-1323.
 
[30]  Rebecca Wurtz and Bruce J. Cameron Electronic Laboratory Reporting for the Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005; 40: 1638-43.
 
[31]  Maarseveen N, Pas S, van Pelt W, Rahamat-Langendoen JC, Schuurman R, Vennema H, Verhoef L, Wolthers K, Koopmans M. Laboratory-based surveillance in the molecular era: the TYPENED model, a joint data-sharing platform for clinical and public health laboratories . Euro Surveill. 2013; 18 (4): pii = 20387.
 
[32]  Ramana KV, Kareem MA, Sarada C, Sebastian S, Lebaka R, Ratnamani MS, Rao R. Chryseomonas luteola bacteremia in a patient with left pyocele testis with Fournier's scrotal gangrene. Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2010; 53: 574-5.
 
[33]  Yu-Tsueng Liu. A technological update of molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases. Infect Disord Drug targets 2008; 8 (3): 183-188.