One hundred seventy-nine Streptococcus pyogenes isolates recovered from scarlet fever patients from 1996 to 1999 in central Taiwan were characterized by emm, Vir, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing methods. The protocols for Vir and PFGE typing were standardized. A database of the DNA fingerprints for the isolates was established. Nine emm or emm-like genes, 19 Vir patterns, and...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a major cause of food-borne illness in the United States. Outbreak detection involves traditional epidemiological methods and routine molecular subtyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). PFGE is labor-intensive, and the results are difficult to analyze and not easily transferable between laboratories. Multilocus variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysi...

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is an important foodborne pathogen worldwide. In Turkey, little is known about the molecular characteristics of STEC O157:H7 isolates. The aim of this study was to examine the genetic diversity of STEC O157:H7 isolates from cattle in Turkey using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). A total of 18 STEC O157:H7 strains were isolated from 5...

In the United Kingdom, EMRSA-15 and EMRSA-16 account for the majority (∼90%) of nosocomial methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Currently, the standard typing technique, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), is laborious and insufficient for discriminating between closely related subtypes of EMRSA-15 and -16. The objective of the present study was to compare the use...

a modified pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (pfge) protocol was developed and applied to clinical isolates of mycobacterium tuberculosis complex to reduce the cost of using lyticase. this protocol reduces the expense of pfge typing of mycobacterium tuberculosis complex as it removes the use of lyticase during the spheroplast formation from these bacteria.

Epidemiologically linked clusters are confirmed by typing strains with molecular typing such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). We compared six extended-spectrum β-lactamase producing E. coli of a PFGE-related cluster with Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass-spectrometry based typing that confirmed relatedness faster and more cost-effective, but as reliable ...

Sir—The much-needed trial by Dow et al. [1] regarding treatment duration for urinary tract infection (UTI) in patients with spinal cord injury and the accompanying editorial commentary [2] raise questions regarding the determination of whether isolates from recurrent (posttherapy) episodes of UTI represent relapse or reinfection and determination of the possible sources of such infections. Firs...

Sir—The much-needed trial by Dow et al. [1] regarding treatment duration for urinary tract infection (UTI) in patients with spinal cord injury and the accompanying editorial commentary [2] raise questions regarding the determination of whether isolates from recurrent (posttherapy) episodes of UTI represent relapse or reinfection and determination of the possible sources of such infections. Firs...

Genetic diversity, isolation frequency, and persistence were determined for Escherichia coli O157 strains from range cattle production environments. Over the 11-month study, analysis of 9,122 cattle fecal samples, 4,083 water source samples, and 521 wildlife fecal samples resulted in 263 isolates from 107 samples presumptively considered E. coli O157 as determined by culture and latex agglutina...

Strains of Salmonella enterica (n = 212) of different serovars and phage types were used to establish a library typing computerized system for serovar Enteritidis on the basis of PCR fingerprinting, infrequent-restriction-site PCR (IRS-PCR), or pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The rate of PCR fingerprinting interassay and intercenter reproducibility was low and was only increased when D...