Intraocular Detection of Herpes viruses by xTAG Liquid Chip Technology in Patients with Acute Retinal Necrosis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of the xTAG liquid chip technology (xTAG-LCT) for etiological diagnosis of acute retinal necrosis (ARN).

Methods: Fifteen vitreous and 3 aqueous samples from 18 ARN patients were analyzed by xTAG-LCT and multiplex PCR (mPCR)/quantitative PCR (qPCR).

Results: xTAG-LCT revealed positive results in 17 of the 18 samples: 10 for Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) alone; 5 for VZV and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); 1 for herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) and EBV; 1 for VZV, HSV-1 and EBV. While mPCR revealed the same results as xTAG-LCT for VZV and HSV-1 in all samples, only 2 of the 7 samples positive for EBV on xTAG-LCT were confirmed by qPCR. None of the 28 control vitreous samples from 8 non-ARN patients and 10 pair of cadaveric eyes was positive for any of the tested viruses.

Conclusions: xTAG-LCT could be a useful alternative for etiological diagnosis of ARN.

Keywords:

• Acute retinal necrosis
• herpes viruses
• pathogen
• polymerase chain reaction
• xTAG liquid chip technology

DECLARATION OF INTEREST

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

FUNDING

This work was supported by grant #201402001 from the Research Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Health.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant #201402001 from the Research Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry of Health.