Culture and other direct detection methods to diagnose human granulocytic anaplasmosis
Author Department
Medicine
Document Type
Article, Peer-reviewed
Publication Date
9-2024
Abstract
Objectives: We sought to assess the performance of 3 laboratory tests on blood specimens for direct detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the cause of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), in patients tested at a single medical institution in New York State.
Methods: Direct tests included microscopic blood smear examination for intragranulocytic inclusions, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and culture using the HL-60 cell line. The HGA cases testing positive by only 1 direct test were not included, unless HGA was confirmed by acute or convalescent serology using an indirect immunofluorescent assay.
Results: From 1997 to 2009, 71 patients with HGA were diagnosed by at least 1 of the 3 direct test methods. For the subgroup of 55 patients who were tested using all 3 methods, culture was positive for 90.9% (50/55) vs 81.8% (45/55) for PCR vs 63.6% (35/55) for blood smear (P =.002). Most cultures (79.3%) were detected as positive within 1 week of incubation.
Conclusions: Although using culture to detect A phagocytophilum is likely not amenable for implementation in most hospital laboratories, in our experience, culture had the highest yield among the direct tests evaluated.
Keywords: Anaplasma phagocytophilum; anaplasmosis; blood culture; diagnosis; human granulocytic anaplasmosis; polymerase chain reaction; smear.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ameri
Recommended Citation
Aguero-Rosenfeld ME, Zentmaier L, Liveris D, Visintainer P, Schwartz I, Dumler JS, Wormser GP. Culture and other direct detection methods to diagnose human granulocytic anaplasmosis. Am J Clin Pathol. 2024 Sep 21:aqae126. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/aqae126. Epub ahead of print.
PMID
39305492
