New test for the diagnosis of bacterial endophthalmitis shows promise

The authors developed a fast real-time (f-real-t) PCR to improve the performance of the laboratory diagnosis of bacterial endophthalmitis and tested it on samples of phosphate buffered saline; vitreous fluid (VF) and aqueous humor (AH) and cell suspensions spiked with Bacteria; VF and AH from patients with endophthalmitis; and VF and AH from non-infective patients. The test was completed in 90 minutes and could detect and quantify Bacteria and eight genera in all samples with a specificity of 100 percent and a sensitivity of 90 percent (endophthalmitis samples). British Journal of Ophthalmology, August 2009