Detection of Proteus Mirabilis in Urine 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 Proteus mirabilis in patients suffering from urinary tract infection. Forty six urine specimens were collected from patients attended Khartoum Teaching Hospital, Ibrahim Malik Teaching Hospital and Omdorman Teaching Hospital. Bacterial DNA was extracted from each urine specimen using phenol choloroform technique. Gene probe technique was adopted to detect presence of Proteus mirabilis. The result revealed that eight (17.4%) specimens were positive and the rest thirty eight (82.6%) were negative. The study concluded that the gene probe technique facilitates detection of bacterial pathogens without bacteriological culture.