Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, October 2000, p. 3612-3618, Vol. 38, No. 10
Mycotic Diseases Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic
Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta,
Georgia,1 and Cook Children's Medical
Center, Fort Worth, Texas2
Received 3 January 2000/Returned for modification 18 March
2000/Accepted 22 July 2000
Aspergillus flavus is second to A. fumigatus as a cause of invasive aspergillosis, but no standard
method exists for molecular typing of strains from human sources. A
repetitive DNA sequence cloned from A. flavus and subcloned
into a pUC19 vector, pAF28, was used to type 18 isolates from diverse
clinical, environmental, and geographic sources. The restriction
fragment length polymorphisms generated with EcoRI- or
PstI-digested genomic DNA and probed with
digoxigenin-labeled pAF28 revealed complete concordance between patterns. Eighteen distinct fingerprints were observed. The probe was
used to investigate two cases of cutaneous A. flavus
infection in low-birth-weight infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Both infants were transported by the same ambulance and crew to
the NICU on the same day. A. flavus strains of the same genotype were isolated from both infants, from a roll of tape used to
fasten their umbilical catheters, from a canvas bag used to store the
tape in the ambulance, and from the tape tray in the ambulance
isolette. These cases highlight the need to consider exposures in
critically ill neonates that might occur during their transport to the
NICU and for stringent infection control practices. The hybridization
profiles of strains from a second cluster of invasive A. flavus infections in two pediatric hematology-oncology patients
revealed a genotype common to strains from a definite case patient and
a health care worker. A probable case patient was infected with a
strain with a genotype different from that of the strain from the
definite case patient but highly related to that of an environmental
isolate. The high degree of discrimination and reproducibility obtained
with the pAF28 probe underscores its utility for typing clinical and
environmental isolates of A. flavus.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Use of a Repetitive DNA Probe To Type Clinical and Environmental
Isolates of Aspergillus flavus from a Cluster of
Cutaneous Infections in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, N.E., Mailstop G-11, Atlanta, GA 30333. Phone: (404) 639-3374. Fax: (404) 639-3546. E-mail:
err2{at}cdc.gov.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. | Clin. Microbiol. Rev. |
|---|---|
| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
|---|