Abstract
Samuel Caughron, MD1, Melissa Melby1, Rebecca Roberts2, and Trista Schagat, PhD2
1Yellowstone Pathology Institute, Billings, MT
2Promega Corporation, Madison, WI
ThinPrep® solution is commonly used to preserve cervical swab cells for morphological analysis. We examined automated nucleic acid purification from these samples for molecular assays. DNA isolate by Maxwell® 16 and analyzed for Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhea (CT/NG) by real-time PCR showed a high correlation to replicate samples assayed by either Roche COBAS® AMPLICOR or Gen-Probe APTIMA Combo 2® Assays in independent laboratories (99% concordance). This same method did not consistently yield DNA of sufficient concentration for Invader®-based Human Papillomavirus (HPV) detection , so we developed a modified extraction method. This method gave 88% concordance to Digene Hybrid Capture II (HC2). These data show Maxwell® 16 can be used for automated nucleic acid purification from ThinPrep® PAP samples for downstream CT/NG and Invader®-based HPV detection.