{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T11:03:36Z","timestamp":1785409416618,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777507200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas","award":["609.A.XVIII.26"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["609.A.XVIII.26"]}]},{"award":["609.A.XVIII.26"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["609.A.XVIII.26"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02j003371","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["TropicalMed"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Early confirmation of leptospirosis is essential for prompt antimicrobial treatment, and PCR-based diagnosis has been reported as a highly sensitive method during the acute phase in the first week since the symptom\u2019s onset. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of two commercial real-time PCR assays\u2014Viasure Leptospira Real-Time PCR (Certest Biotec, Spain) and Genesig Advanced Leptospira spp. (Primerdesign, UK) against an in-house qPCR assay targeting lipL32 as the reference method. A retrospective comparative evaluation was conducted on 235 human EDTA-blood samples obtained during the acute phase of clinical presentation suspected of leptospirosis. The in-house qPCR reference assay detected 55 positive and 180 negative samples, and both commercial kits accurately classified every specimen, achieving 100% sensitivity (95% CI: 93.5\u2013100), 100% specificity (95% CI: 98.0\u2013100), and 100% overall accuracy. In conclusion, both commercial qPCR kits offer high accuracy for the early detection of pathogenic Leptospira in human blood samples.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/tropicalmed11050119","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T08:03:47Z","timestamp":1777536227000},"page":"119","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Diagnostic Performance of Two Commercial qPCR Kits for Leptospira spp. Detection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Andr\u00e9s Esteban","family":"Barrag\u00e1n-Pe\u00f1a","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170516, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Darwin","family":"Paredes-N\u00fa\u00f1ez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170516, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fabiola","family":"Jimenez Valenzuela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad Cat\u00f3lica Santiago de Guayaquil, Guayaquil 090504, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Solon Alberto","family":"Orlando","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Nacional de Salud P\u00fablica e Investigaci\u00f3n, Guayaquil 010350, Ecuador"},{"name":"Universidad Ecotec, Km 13.5 Samborond\u00f3n, Samborond\u00f3n 092302, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elsy","family":"Carvajal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170516, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Angel Sebastian","family":"Rodriguez-Pazmi\u00f1o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170516, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0025-3609","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel Angel","family":"Garcia-Bereguiain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"One Health Research Group, Universidad de Las Am\u00e9ricas, Quito 170516, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.31128\/AFP-07-17-4286","article-title":"Leptospirosis: An important zoonosis acquired through work, play and travel","volume":"47","author":"Lau","year":"2018","journal-title":"Aust. 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