PCR amplification of rRNA intergenic spacer regions as a method for epidemiologic typing of Clostridium difficile

作者：Charles P. Cartwright, Frida Stock, Susan E. Beekmann, Esther C. Williams, V J Gill · 发表于：Journal of Clinical Microbiology · 年份：1995 · DOI：10.1128/jcm.33.1.184-187.1995 · 被引用次数：79 · 研究领域：Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research、Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology、Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus

From January to March 1993, a suspected outbreak of antibiotic-associated diarrhea occurred on a pediatric oncology ward of the Clinical Center Hospital at the National Institutes of Health. Isolates of Clostridium difficile obtained from six patients implicated in this outbreak were typed by both PCR amplification of rRNA intergenic spacer regions (PCR ribotyping) and restriction endonuclease analysis of genomic DNA. Comparable results were obtained with both methods; five of the six patients were infected with the same strain of C. difficile. Subsequent analysis of 102 C. difficile isolates obtained from symptomatic patients throughout the Clinical Center revealed the existence of 41 distinct and reproducible PCR ribotypes. These data suggest that PCR ribotyping provides a discriminatory, reproducible, and simple alternative to conventional molecular approaches for typing strains of C. difficile.