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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 1996, 1193-1202, Vol 34, No. 5
AM Snelling, P Gerner-Smidt, PM Hawkey, J Heritage, P Parnell, C Porter, AR Bodenham and T Inglis
Acinetobacter spp. are being reported with increasing frequency as causes
of nosocomial infection. In order to identify reservoirs of infection as
quickly as possible, a rapid typing method that can differentiate epidemic
strains from environmental and nonepidemic strains is needed. In 1993, a
cluster of Acinetobacter baumannii isolates from five patients in the adult
intensive therapy unit of our tertiary-care teaching hospital led us to
develop and optimize a rapid repetitive extragenic palindromic
sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR) typing protocol for members of the
Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex that uses boiled colonies
and consensus primers aimed at repetitive extragenic palindromic sequences.
Four of the five patient isolates gave the same REP-PCR typing pattern as
isolates of A. baumannii obtained from the temperature probe of a Bennett
humidifier; the fifth isolate had a unique profile. Disinfection of the
probe with 70% ethanol, as recommended by the manufacturer, proved
ineffective, as A. baumannii with the same REP-PCR pattern was isolated
from it 10 days after cleaning, necessitating a change in our
decontamination procedure. Results obtained with REP-PCR were subsequently
confirmed by ribotyping. To evaluate the discriminatory power (D) of
REP-PCR for typing members of the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex,
compared with that of ribotyping, we have applied both methods to a
collection of 85 strains that included representatives of six DNA groups
within the complex. Ribotyping using EcoRI digests yielded 53 patterns (D =
0.98), whereas 68 different REP-PCR patterns were observed (D = 0.99). By
computer-assisted analysis of gel images, 74 patterns were observed with
REP-PCR (D = 1.0). Overall, REP-PCR typing proved to be slightly more
discriminatory than ribotyping. Our results indicate that REP-PCR typing
used boiled colonies is a simple, rapid, and effective means of typing
members of the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex.
Copyright © 1996 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Validation of use of whole-cell repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR) for typing strains belonging to the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii complex and application of the method to the investigation of a hospital outbreak
Department of Microbiology, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
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