rapid etiologic diagnosis of herpes virus infections in children

Background: human herpes viruses, as common viruses, not only affect mainly the skin, mucosa, and nervous tissue, but also can cause a variety of serious diseases in children. objectives: the aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of multiplex pcr-based dna microarray technology in comparison with pcr method and igm elisa. methods: a total of 108 blood samples from children with viral infections were collected and analyzed by multiplex pcr-based dna microarray technology, pcr method, and igm elisa. results: of 108 specimens, 16 were positive which gave a positive rate of 14.8%. most of the patients were infected with ebv and hcmv. the sensitivity and specificity of this technology for detecting human herpes viruses were 100% when compared to pcr method. the crude agreement between multiplex pcr-based dna microarray technology and igm elisa for detecting human herpes viruses was 95.4%. conclusions: the results indicated that multiplex pcr-based dna microarray technology is a rapid auxiliary diagnostic method for simultaneous detection of the seven common herpes viruses with high sensitivity and specificity.