Evaluation of five real-time PCR assays for detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae

Four commercial real-time PCR assays to detect Mycoplasma pneumoniae were tested, and the results were compared with the results for an in-house approach. Despite differences of crossing threshold values of up to 4, assays were able to detect at least 20 CFU/5 μl (52 fg DNA/5 μl) of sample with the Diagenode kit showing the best clinical sensitivity.