Detection of Serratia marcescens in Sputum Specimens by Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique

Abstract

This study was carried out in the period from May 2007 - March 2008 to detect the presence of Serratia marcescens in patients suffering from pneumonia. Forty six sputum specimens were collected from patients who attended Albangadid Hospital, Alshaab .Hospital and National Health Laboratory Bacterial DNA was extracted from each sputum specimen using phenol chloroform method. Real Time PCR technique was adopted to detect the presence of Serratia .marcescens The result revealed that only three (6.5%) specimens were positive and the rest (93.4%) . were negative The study concluded that the Real-time PCR technique facilitates detection of bacterial .pathogens without the need for bacteriological culture