Figure 1.

Quantities of pathogens detected in blood using the TaqMan Array Card. Quantification cycle (Cq) values, an inverse metric of pathogen load, are shown on the y- axis for the different pathogens detected. In this study, the Cq values of most bacterial, fungal, and viral targets ranged from 30 to 40, with a few exceptions of early Cq values such as Bartonella spp., Klebsiella oxytoca, and Enterovirus spp. Therefore, most of these samples had low pathogen loads. Alternatively, low Cq-values could have resulted from sample degradation, in particular, for viral pathogens with RNA genomes, as the whole blood samples used for this retrospective testing had been stored for several years. The Cq-values of Plasmodium spp., on the other hand, showed a much wider dynamic range. Abbreviation: CMV, cytomegalovirus.