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Laboratory Diagnosis of chlamydial infections (in sequential order).

Introduction

• Introduction to chlamydial diagnostic lab tests.
• Brief overview of specimen collection.

Theoretical considerations

• Selecting suitable test endpoints.
• Effect of sensitivity, specificity and prevalence on test predictive values.
• Dealing with discrepancies between tests.
• Specimen strategies: pooling and replication.

Classic diagnostic tests.

• Chlamydial isolation in cell cultures.
• Antigen detection: Immunofluorescence.
• Antigen detection: Enzyme Immunoassay.
• Overview: Rapid Point of Care Tests.
• The micro IF test for chlamydial antibody.
• Do we need serological diagnosis?

Nucleic Acid based tests

• Pace 2 Hybridization test.
• Introduction: Nucleic acid amplification-based tests.
• PCR tests.
• Abbott LCR test. [ This test is now obsolete following its withdrawal by the manufacturer].
• Molecular Beacons.
• Strand displacement assays.
• The first generation TMA. The APT CT.
• The second generation TMA. The Aptima Combo 2.
• The NucliSens NASBA kit.
• Non invasive samples and alternative screening strategies.
• Nucleic acid amplification tests on cervical cytology specimens.
• Laboratory automation of diagnostics.
• Concluding remarks.

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