by Ramírez JC, Cura CI, da Cruz Moreira O, Lages-Silva E, Juiz N, Velázquez E, Ramírez JD, Alberti A, Pavia P, Flores-Chávez MD, Muñoz-Calderón A, Pérez-Morales D, Santalla J, Marcos da Matta Guedes P, Peneau J, Marcet P, Padilla C, Cruz-Robles D, Valencia E, Crisante GE, Greif G, Zulantay I, Costales JA, Alvarez-Martínez M, Martínez NE, Villarroel R, Villarroel S, Sánchez Z, Bisio M, Parrado R, Maria da Cunha Galvão L, Jácome da Câmara AC, Espinoza B, Alarcón de Noya B, Puerta C, Riarte A, Diosque P, Sosa-Estani S, Guhl F, Ribeiro I, Aznar C, Britto C, Yadón ZE, Schijman AG.The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. 2015 Sep;17(5):605-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2015.04.010
Summary: An international study was performed by 26 laboratories from 14 countries to assess the performance of duplex quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) strategies for detection and quantification of parasitic loads in peripheral blood samples from Chagas disease patients. Analyses of clinical samples revealed a high concordance in terms of sensitivity and parasitic loads determined by both SatDNA and kDNA qPCRs. This effort is a major step toward international validation of qPCR methods for the quantification of T. cruzi DNA in human blood samples, aiming to provide an accurate surrogate biomarker for diagnosis and treatment monitoring for patients with Chagas disease.
