Myconostica, the UK based medical diagnostic company, has presented positive data from a multi-centre prospective evaluation of MycAssay Pneumocystis, the CE marked diagnostic product for detection of Pneumocystis DNA in respiratory samples.

MycAssay Pneumocystis is a molecular diagnostic test specific to Pneumocystis jirovecii and is CE marked and Health Canada approved for diagnostic purposes on the real-time PCR thermocyclers in the market.

Myconostica said that the study demonstrated the sensitivity and specificity of the test as 93% and 91% respectively, when compared with final clinical diagnosis.

Myconostica chief business officer John Thornback said that MycAssay Pneumocystis is a robust, standardardised and easy to use assay, that delivers results within four hours. The study shows a high sensitivity and specificity for detection of the pathogen with a very high negative predictive value suggesting a possible role for the assay in ruling out the presence of this pathogen.