Objective: Pertussis is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease distinguished by its characteristic cough. Bordetella pertussis is the causative agent in most of the cases. Culture, antigen detection, polymerase chain reaction and serological methods are used in diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of two commercial polymerase chain reaction tests targeting the IS481 gene for the diagnosis of pertussis.

Methods: Nasopharyngeal aspirate samples of 77 patients with clinically suspected pertussis were included in this study. The samples were cultivated in appropriate media and assessed with three different polymerase chain reaction tests for the detection of Bordetella pertussis: Diagenode Bordetella pertussis and parapertussis real-time polymerase chain reaction kit (Diagenode Diagnostics, Liège, Belgium), BORDETELLA R-gene™ kit (Argene, Verniolle, France) and conventional polymerase chain reaction test. The true positive and true negative results were compared with the results of two real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: The ages of the study participants ranged from 10-50 years (Mean age 26.5±9.2 years). The frequencies of paroxysmal cough and vomiting were statistically higher in patients with pertussis. Bordetella pertussis culture were positive in three (3.9%) samples. The positive and negative percent agreements of BORDETELLA R-gene™ kit were 100% and 97%, respectively. The positive and negative percent agreements of Diagenode Bordetella pertussis and parapertussis real-time polymerase chain reaction kits were calculated as 91% and 100%, respectively.

Conclusion: The sensitivity and specificity of both real-time polymerase chain reaction commercial kits in the diagnosis of Bordetella pertussis are similar to the rates reported in the literature. The agreement and correlation coefficient between the tests are also high.