The 2nd Meeting of the European Study Group for Legionella Infections (ESGLI) held in Barcelona, Spain, from September 17-19, 2014. The aims of ESGLI, the Study Group of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) involve clinical, microbiological and epidemiological aspects as well as the rapid diagnosis, typing, control and prevention of Legionnaires’ disease. This meeting will cover 5 areas: European Surveillance of Legionnaires’ disease; Microbiology and Pathogenesis of Legionella Infection; Clinical Aspects; Diagnosis and Treatment of Legionnaires’ Disease; Prevention and Risk Assessment in Hospitals and a new area on Water Treatment, all of which will be presented by well known experts in these fields.

1. Rapid testing in the monitoring
of Legionella in complex
environmental matrices
G. Rodríguez
Thursday 18 SeptemberThursday 18 September

2. Background flora gives to
inconclusive results by culture
based techniques
Inhibitors gives to inconclusive
results by PCR based techniquesresults by PCR based techniques
Technical approach: Immuno-
magnetic method (IMM)

3. The capture of IMM focus on cell
envelop integrity

4. IMM utilizes magnetic immunobeads to
capture Legionella achieving its purification &
concentration at the same time.

5. Laboratories evaluated the IMM by
comparison with culture and qPCR
or/and qPCR

6. Culture but not IMM lost viable Legionella when
microbiota was added
Water Matrix
Legionella
(103)+ + Microbiota I
(>107)
Microbiota II
(>107)
or

7. IMM signal was reduced by the effect of
biocides on Legionella

8. Immunomagnetic separation could be useful to
reduce inconclusive results by PCR (ongoing studies)

9. Not growth based methods detected more
positive results than culture method.

10. Action and alert levels for IMM were
comparable to those derived from the culture
(coincidence 94%)
(*) There is not an accepted correspondence between PCR and culture

11. Purification of Legionella allowed to deliver
even more profitable information
The proportion of no conclusive results decreased by eliminating or
minimizing interfering agents over detection

12. Minutes
Hours IMM
IDEAL
Time
IMM could be a complementary tool for the
intended use of prevention.
Days
Weeks
Low High
Likelihood of detecting Legionella
WORST
Culture
qPCR
Time
to result

13. Summary: Legionella-binding magnetic beads
were useful for rapid testing in environmental
samples
Enhances consistency of the results by
minimizing the background flora/
inhibitors
Focus on viability because captureFocus on viability because capture
event depends on the integrity of cell
envelop
Reduces time to result
Cost effective and simple to use

14. E-mail >> guiller@biotica.es
www.biotica.es