This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Shutt, C. K. Articles by Woods, G. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Shutt, C. K. Articles by Woods, G. L.

Clinical Evaluation of the DiversiLab Microbial Typing System Using Repetitive-Sequence-Based PCR for Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Strains

ARUP Microbiology Laboratory,² ARUP Laboratories, ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology,¹ Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah³

Received 23 April 2004/ Returned for modification 6 June 2004/ Accepted 19 November 2004

The DiversiLab System, which includes microfluidics-based detection, reagent kits, and software for data processing and analysis, is an automated method using repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) for microbial strain typing. To assess the reliability of the DiversiLab System for strain characterization of Staphylococcus aureus, we tested clinical isolates sent to ARUP Laboratories for typing and compared results to those of pulsed field electrophoresis (PFGE) aided by the cluster analysis provided by BioNumerics software. spa typing was performed when the results of these two methods for an outbreak were not concordant. The study included 89 S. aureus isolates (65 mecA positive, 24 mecA negative) from 19 outbreaks (2 to 11 isolates/outbreak). The DiversiLab and PFGE-BioNumerics results were concordant for 15 of the 19 outbreaks. For the remaining four outbreaks, there was partial concordance between the two methods. spa typing results were the same as or more similar to rep-PCR results for three of those outbreaks and were more similar to PFGE results for one. With regard to performance, the DiversiLab system was considerably less labor intensive than PFGE and provided results in less than 24 h, compared with 2 to 3 days for PFGE. Additionally, the Web-based DiversiLab software provides standardized comparisons among isolates almost instantaneously and generates user-friendly, customized reports.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Harrington, S. M., Stock, F., Kominski, A. L., Campbell, J. D., Hormazabal, J. C., Livio, S., Rao, L., Kotloff, K. L., Sow, S. O., Murray, P. R. (2007). Genotypic Analysis of Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae from Mali, Africa, by Semiautomated Repetitive-Element PCR and Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 707-714 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Pounder, J. I., Hansen, D., Woods, G. L. (2006). Identification of Histoplasma capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis, and Coccidioides Species by Repetitive-Sequence-Based PCR.. J. Clin. Microbiol. 44: 2977-2982 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Singh, A., Goering, R. V., Simjee, S., Foley, S. L., Zervos, M. J. (2006). Application of Molecular Techniques to the Study of Hospital Infection. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 19: 512-530 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Ross, T. L., Merz, W. G., Farkosh, M., Carroll, K. C. (2005). Comparison of an Automated Repetitive Sequence-Based PCR Microbial Typing System to Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis for Analysis of Outbreaks of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 5642-5647 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Pounder, J. I., Williams, S., Hansen, D., Healy, M., Reece, K., Woods, G. L. (2005). Repetitive-Sequence-PCR-Based DNA Fingerprinting Using the DiversiLab System for Identification of Commonly Encountered Dermatophytes. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 2141-2147 [Abstract] [Full Text]