Table 3. Results of 26 clinical specimens from seven inhalational anthrax patients analyzed by direct fluorescent-antibody assay, culture, and polymerase chain reaction assaya.
| Patient identifierb | Specimen |
Results |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Number | Date collected | DFA | Culture | PCRc | |
| 1 | Heart bloodd,e | 1 | 10/6 | (-) | ND | (-) |
| 1 | Bloodd,e | 1 | 10/6 | (-) | ND | (-) |
| 1 | Lung tissued,e | 2 | 10/6 | (+) | ND | (-) |
| 1 | Chest fluidd,e | 2 | 10/6 | (-) | ND | (+) |
| 1 | Pericardial fluidd,e | 1 | 10/6 | (-) | ND | (+) |
| 2 | Bloodd | 3 | 10/5 | (-) | (-) | (-) |
| 2 | Pleural fluidd | 1 | 10/5 | (+) | (-) | (+) |
| 2 | Pleural fluidd | 1 | 10/5 | (-) | (-) | (+) |
| 2 | Unspecified body fluidd | 1 | 10/5 | (+) | (-) | (-) |
| 3 | Bloodd | 1 | 10/19 | (+) | (-) | (+) |
| 5 | Bloodd | 2 | 10/21 | (+) | (+) | (+) |
| 6 | Blood | 1 | 10/22 | (+) | (+) | (+) |
| 10 | Lung tissued,e | 1 | 10/31 | (-) | (-) | (+) |
| 10 | Lymph noded,e | 1 | 10/31 | (-) | (-) | (+) |
| 10 | Pleural fluidd | 1 | 10/29 | (+) | (-) | (+) |
| 10 | Pleural fluidd | 1 | 10/29 | (-) | (-) | (+) |
| 11 | Blood | 2 | 11/17 | (+) | (+) | ND |
| 11 | Blood | 2 | 11/17 | (+) | (+) | ND |
| 11 | Lymph noded-f | 1 | 11/21 | (+) | (-) | (+) |
aDFA, direct fluorescent-antibody assay; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; ND, not done. bPatients 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10 reported by Jernigan et al. (6), and patient 11 reported by Barakat et al. (18). cReal-time PCR as described by Hoffmaster et al. (20). All DNA samples tested positive by human beta actin PCR. dSpecimens collected the day on or after antimicrobial treatment was begun. eSpecimens collected postmortem. fDocumented culture negative; previously reported as culture positive (18).