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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2005, p. 3095-3100, Vol. 43, No. 7
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.7.3095-3100.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Analysis with Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis, spa Typing, and Multilocus Sequence Typing for Clonal Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates

Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Cracow, Poland,¹ National Institute of Public Health, 00-725 Warsaw, Poland,² Department of Pathology, Hershey Medical Center, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033³

Received 10 November 2004/ Returned for modification 7 January 2005/ Accepted 15 March 2005

Multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA), a new PCR-based method of typing Staphylococcus aureus, was compared to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), spa typing, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) on a group of 59 S. aureus (mostly methicillin-resistant) clinical isolates. The aim of the study was to establish possible criteria of clustering MLVA patterns and to check concordance levels between the results produced by MLVA and the three other typing methods. As in our earlier study, MLVA turned out to have discriminatory power similar to that of PFGE. Comparison of data obtained by the two approaches allowed us to propose a 70% or ca. 80% cutoff value of the similarity between two MLVA patterns, depending on a cutoff level applied to interpret the PFGE results, 75% or ca. 90%, respectively. The cutoff values corresponded to the difference of up to six or four bands, respectively, among maximum 14 bands in total produced by two isolates in the analysis. The MLVA clusters matched well those obtained by PFGE, and they were also consistent in general with clusters generated by spa typing and MLST, these latter methods characterized lower resolution. Our results suggest that MLVA may be reliable in shorter-term S. aureus epidemiological studies, including analyses of outbreaks and hospital-to-hospital strain transmission events. Well-known advantages of typing methods based on PCR (low cost, short time, and easiness of performance) make MLVA a method that may be useful in a variety of laboratories, including those performing routine microbiological analyses within medical centers.

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