COMPARISON OF RAPID AUTOMATED LASER FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS OF DNA FINGERPRINTS WITH 4 OTHER COMPUTER-ASSISTED APPROACHES FOR STUDYING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ACINETOBACTER-BAUMANNII ISOLATES

The relationships between isolates suggested by a novel DNA typing met hod (RAPD-ALFA) that combines randomly amplified polymorphic DNA with automated on-line laser fluorescence analysis of DNA fragments were co mpared with those suggested by four other computer-assisted typing str ategies (biotyping, antibiogram typing, pulsed-field gel analysis of c hromosomal fingerprints and arbitrarily-primed DNA amplification with three different primers) for 25 isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii ob tained from 12 different hospitals in four countries over a period of 12 years. The results obtained by cluster analysis with two different software packages confirmed that the relationships suggested by RAPD-A LFA were robust and essentially similar to those suggested by the othe r more laborious computer-assisted typing methods. The technique of RA PD-ALFA appears to offer the possibility of routine on-line molecular identification and typing of isolates from particular hospital wards o r units (e.g., intensive care units), and could, therefore, play a key role in the early recognition and prevention of outbreaks of infectio n.