Diagnostic electron microscopy is still a timely and rewarding method

Abstract

In the history of diagnostic EM in virology, a change in use has been seen. Starting in the 1990s and coincident with the broad introduction of 'modern' diagnostic techniques, the number of EM diagnostic labs has decreased considerably--in spite of the obvious advantages of this technique. To guarantee the continuing performance of diagnostic EM in the future. EQA runs have to be performed as with other techniques in the diagnostic armament. The growing number of participants and participating countries indicates an interest in as well as a need for this program.

Detection of Human Polyomaviruses in Urine from Bone Marrow Transplant Patients: Comparison of Electron Microscopy with PCR

“…However, even after optimization, EM is not as sensitive as PCR for polyomaviruses in urine. This must be taken into account when looking for future diagnostic uses for EM (7,8 ).…”

“…Speed is one of the most commonly cited advantages of EM for diagnostic purposes (7,20 ), but although it enables rapid diagnosis within 15 min, direct EM is clearly not as sensitive as the combination of EM with UC enrichment, which on the other hand takes at least 1.5 h to obtain results. This makes EM with UC enrichment slower than up-to-date real-time PCR assays, which can give results within 60 min or less (21 ).…”

“…Today, some laboratories are discarding EM as a diagnostic tool and replacing it with PCR assays because the latter can generally be performed according to routine laboratory protocols, whereas EM still depends greatly on the skill and experience of the personnel using the microscope. However, there is continuing discussion concerning whether PCR is a satisfactory alternative to EM (7)(8)(9)(10)(11), and few direct comparisons between PCR and EM as diagnostic assays for one specific agent have been made (12)(13)(14). Although technical specifications, e.g., sensitivity, specificity, and detection limits, have been published for many PCRbased assays [see Ref.…”

Atomic Force Microscopy in Detection of Viruses

“…Historically, the optical microscope and the electron microscope (EM) have played a key role in the discovery and structural characterization of viral isolates (Biel and Gelderblom 1999;Hazelton and Gelderblom 2003). Today, EM is used mainly as a research tool and not in main stream routine diagnoses because it is not suited for high through-put analyses.…”

A Suspicious Facial Lesion - A Unique Opportunity to Test the North Carolina Laboratory Response Network

“…TEM has long been recognized as an effective method of identifying viruses [4]. For example, variola virus, a poxvirus that causes smallpox, can be rapidly identified and easily distinguished from varicella-zoster virus (VZV), a herpesvirus that causes chicken pox and shingles [5,6]; in contrast, symptoms and lesions in early VZV infection may be confused with those of smallpox.…”