Evaluation of the new nucleic acid amplification system for direct detection of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in women

: The performance of a real-time DNA amplification assay, BD ProbeTec ET System (BDPT, BD Diagnostic Systems), to detect Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae on endocervical and oropharyngeal samples was evaluated. After obtaining informed consent, 364 endocervical, 363 urine and 247 oropharyngeal specimens were collected from 307 cases. The overall agreement rate of the BDPT and Amplicor (AMP, Roche) assays for the detection of C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae in endocervical samples was 99.2% (361/364) for C. trachomatis and 99.5% (362/364) for N. gonorrhoeae. Assay of oropharyngeal swabs by the BDPT yielded 21 C. trachomatis positives, and 19 of them were C. trachomatis negative by the DNA probe assay (Gen-Probe PACE). The AMP assay showed that 16/19 (84.2%) of the BDPT +/DNA probe - samples were positive. The BDPT also yielded 21 N. gonorrhoeae positives, 15 of which were negative with the DNA probe. Additional testing showed that all 15 BDPT +/DNA probe - samples were positive by the established nested PCR method. Our data suggest that the performance of the BDPT is comparable to that of AMP for detection of C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae in endocervical swab samples and that it may be a useful method for detecting of C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae in oropharyngeal samples clinically.