Specimen Submission for Diagnostic Testing

Public health department laboratory staff may be able to forward specimens to CDC for specialized testing. CDC uses molecular testing with multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) as the primary laboratory procedure for Chlamydia pneumoniae identification. Culture and serological testing are not used as routine diagnostics in the CDC laboratory. Refer to the C. pneumoniae diagnostics chart for more information.

All necessary information for investigating suspected C. pneumoniae cases and providing specimens to the CDC laboratory for diagnostic testing are highlighted below. Tests are more likely to detect C. pneumoniae when specimen collection occurs prior to commencement of antimicrobials.

Approved Specimen Types

CDC’s laboratory accepts any of the following types of specimens for C. pneumoniae testing from public health department laboratories (only if the specimen type does not fall within the category of “specimen rejection criteria” as outlined below):

Combined nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs in viral transfer media (VTM) or universal transfer media (UTM)
NP swabs in VTM/UTM
OP swabs in VTM/UTM
Sputum
Tissue
Bronchial lavage fluid
Bronchial washings
Cerebral spinal fluid
Purified nucleic acids
Bacterial isolates

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Specimen Rejection Criteria

The following are reasons why specimens are most commonly rejected by CDC’s laboratory for C. pneumoniae testing:

Specimens collected using calcium alginate swabs
Specimens collected using cotton swabs
Specimens collected using swabs with wooden shafts
Specimens not transported at proper temperature (refer to Specimen Submission for shipment requirements)
Specimens with insufficient volume for testing (a specimen must be at least 200µL)
Inappropriate specimen types
Specimens arriving with no documentation, insufficient documentation, or erroneous documentation (refer to Specimen Submission for necessary documentation)

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Specimen Collection Protocol

Developed by the Unexplained Respiratory Disease Outbreak (URDO) working group, the Specimen Collection Guidelines [8 pages] detail how to collect tissue specimens, as well as upper (NP, OP) and lower respiratory specimens.