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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 1998, p. 1294-1299, Vol. 36, No. 5
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Molecular Epidemiological Study of Aspergillus fumigatus in a Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit by PCR Amplification of Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Sequences

Sarah A. Radford,1 Elizabeth M. Johnson,1 John P. Leeming,2 Michael R. Millar,2,3 Jacqueline M. Cornish,4 Annabel B. M. Foot,4 and David W. Warnock1,*

Mycology Reference Laboratory, Public Health Laboratory Service,1 Public Health Laboratory, Bristol Royal Infirmary,2 Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Bristol,3 and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children,4 Bristol, United Kingdom

Received 8 September 1997/Returned for modification 4 December 1997/Accepted 12 February 1998

We have developed a PCR-based method for the subspecific discrimination of Aspergillus fumigatus types by using two primers designed to amplify the intergenic spacer regions between ribosomal DNA transcription units. The method permitted the reproducible discrimination of 11 distinct DNA types among a total of 119 isolates of A. fumigatus collected from patients and from the environment of a bone marrow transplantation (BMT) unit over a three-year period. Ten DNA types of A. fumigatus were isolated from patients in the BMT unit; eight of these types were also found in the hospital environment, and six of these were present in the unit itself. Thirteen BMT patients developed infection with one of three DNA types some months after these had first been found in the environment of the unit. In other instances, the same DNA types of A. fumigatus were isolated from BMT patients that were later recovered from the environment of the unit. Several DNA types of A. fumigatus were found in the hospital environment over an 18-month period. Molecular typing of multiple isolates of A. fumigatus, obtained from postmortem tissue samples, showed that one patient was infected with a single DNA type, but two others had up to three different DNA types. Our findings suggest that A. fumigatus infection in BMT recipients may be nosocomial in origin and underline the need for careful environmental monitoring of units in which high-risk patients are housed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Mycology Reference Laboratory, Public Health Laboratory, Kingsdown, Bristol BS2 8EL, United Kingdom. Phone: (44) 117-928-5030. Fax: (44) 117-922-6611. E-mail: D.W.Warnock{at}PHLSBristol.btinternet.com.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 1998, p. 1294-1299, Vol. 36, No. 5
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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