INVESTIGATION OF NOSOCOMIAL RESPIRATORY-INFECTION DUE TO PSEUDOMONAS-CEPACIA BY ARBITRARILY PRIMED POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

We used DNA fingerprinting by the arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) technique for an epidemiologic investigation of Pseu domonas cepacia nosocomial isolates obtained from patients attending o ur hospital. This approach was compared with conventional phenotypic t yping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The patterns of gel electrophoresis of the products of AP-PCR differed significantly acco rding to differences in the concentration of Mg2+ and in pH. AP-PCR an d PFGE was identical in their resolving power, as the two methods gene rated four different profiles and identified the same group of strains . The AP-PCR method constitutes an easy alternative to the well-establ ished PFGE method.