%0 Journal Article %A Pitcher, David %A Chalker, Victoria J. %A Sheppard, Carmen %A George, Robert C. %A Harrison, Timothy G. %T Real-time detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in respiratory samples with an internal processing control %D 2006 %J Journal of Medical Microbiology, %V 55 %N 2 %P 149-155 %@ 1473-5644 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.46281-0 %K IPC, internal processing control %K Cp, crossing point %I Microbiology Society, %X Real-time PCR was employed to detect a region of the P1 cytadhesin gene of Mycoplasma pneumoniae in clinical samples. An internal processing control was included that could be co-amplified simultaneously in the same reaction tube. The assay could reproducibly detect 1×103 M. pneumoniae organisms ml−1 in clinical samples. There was no amplification of DNA or signal production from 15 other species of human mycoplasmas and 19 other bacterial species. Using a panel of 175 respiratory samples taken from patients with pneumonia of proven aetiology, the sensitivity was found to be 60 % and the specificity of the assay 96·7 % when compared with serology. This assay is suitable for same-day diagnosis of M. pneumoniae infection and batch processing of respiratory samples for clinical screening. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.46281-0