Does asymptomatic shedding of herpes simplex virus on the ocular surface lead to false-positive diagnostic PCR results?
- F I Proctor Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
- Dr Todd P Margolis, PhD, F I Proctor Foundation, 95 Kirkham Street, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0944, USA; Todd.Margolis{at}ucsf.edu
- Accepted 5 June 2007
Herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis is a major cause of ocular morbidity in the developed world and standard viral culture techniques to detect HSV in this condition are rapidly being replaced by PCR-based assays.2 3 In 2005, however, Kaufman et al1 reported an unexpectedly high rate of HSV type 1 shedding detected by PCR on the ocular surface of patients without active corneal disease. In the light of this, we reviewed our clinical laboratory experience to assess the rate of false-positive results with a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments-certified PCR-based assay for the detection of HSV DNA.
Review of laboratory database and clinical charts
We included all corneal specimens evaluated in the F I Proctor Foundation clinical laboratory …
