[Comparison of rayon and flocked swabs for collection and transport of deep throat swabs for detection of bacteria causing whooping cough by multiplex real-time PCR assay.]

: The aim of the work was to comparison of rayon and flocked swabs for collection and transport of deep throat swabs for detection of bacteria causing whooping cough by multiplex real-time PCR assay. The study included 87 patients aged from 1 month to 37 years, hospitalized in Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital No. 1 of the Moscow Department of Healthcare. 68 (78,2 %) people had a diagnosis of whooping cough, the main group of which consisted of children aged 1 to 12 months (median 4 months); 17 (19,5 %) - other diseases of the respiratory tract; 2 (2,3 %) - contact with sick whooping cough. The initial examination of patients was carried out on the 1 - 8th week of the onset of the disease. The material from the patients was taken at one-day interval with commercial rayon swabs and flocked swabs. Identification and differentiation of specific genome fragments of the causative agents of whooping cough in biological material was carried out by real-time PCR using the «AmpliSens® Bordetella multi-FL» reagent kit. The efficiency of PCR-based diagnostics of whooping cough using flocked swabs at the preanalytical stage was 83,8 %, and rayon swabs - 82,3 %. The use of a flocked swabs at the preanalytical stage increased the research efficiency by 1,5 %. Thus, when collecting biological material for PCR-based diagnostics of whooping cough it is possible to use flocked swabs.