Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Detection of Herpes Simplex Virus in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Cost Savings from Earlier Hospital Discharge  Kenneth Rand, Herbert Houck, Robert Lawrence  The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics  Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 511-516 (October 2005) DOI: 10.1016/S1525-1578(10)60582-X Copyright © 2005 American Society for Investigative Pathology and Association for Molecular Pathology Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Interlaboratory comparison of blinded duplicate end point dilutions of quantitated HSV-1 DNA (1.2 × 104 copies/μl; ABI). The y axis shows the number of copies/reaction mixture and the x axis shows the measured cycle threshold, CT. All laboratories detected both replicates at four copies/reaction mixture, but as expected detection below that level was less inconsistent. ND, not detected. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 2005 7, 511-516DOI: (10.1016/S1525-1578(10)60582-X) Copyright © 2005 American Society for Investigative Pathology and Association for Molecular Pathology Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 A: The distribution of hospital LOS for all patients with CSF HSV PCR performed divided into those whose test was sent to a reference laboratory before June 18, 2003 (▪) and those whose test was performed in-house on or after June 18, 2003 (□). The mean LOS for all patients before in-house HSV CSF PCR testing was 5.4 days (median, 5 days) compared with 4.7 days (median, 4 days) after in-house implementation. The difference in the distributions is statistically significant using a 2 × 9 χ2 test (P < 0.05). Patients discharged on day 1 or after day 10 were excluded because it was reasonable to assume that the test results would not have influenced patient discharge. B: The distribution of hospital LOS for neonates (<30 days of age at admission) with CSF HSV PCR performed divided into those whose test was sent to a reference laboratory before June 18, 2003 (▪) and those whose test was performed in-house on or after June 18, 2003 (□). The distributions are statistically different (P < 0.01, χ2). The mean LOS for newborns before in-house CSF HSV PCR testing was 6.2 days (median, 6 days) compared with 4.5 days (median, 3 days) after CSF HSV PCR in-house testing. C: The distribution of hospital LOS for all patients matched by primary diagnosis with CSF HSV PCR performed divided into those whose test was sent to a reference laboratory before June 18, 2003 (mean, 4.9 days; median, 5.0 days) (▪) and those whose test was performed in-house on or after June 18, 2003 (mean, 3.7 days; median, 3.0 days) (□). The distributions are statistically different (P < 0.01, χ2). D: The distribution of hospital LOS for neonates <30 days of age on admission matched by primary diagnosis with CSF HSV PCR performed divided into those whose test was sent to a reference laboratory before June 18, 2003 (mean, 5.7 days; median, 7.0 days) (▪) and those whose test was performed in-house on or after June 18, 2003 (mean, 2.7 days; median, 3.0 days (□). The distributions are statistically different (P < 0.01, χ2). The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 2005 7, 511-516DOI: (10.1016/S1525-1578(10)60582-X) Copyright © 2005 American Society for Investigative Pathology and Association for Molecular Pathology Terms and Conditions