S. Ledru et al., Molecular study of a false outbreak of ticarcillin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in a clinical hematology department., PATH BIOL, 47(10), 1999, pp. 1045-1052
Molecular methods for bacterial strain typing are becoming available outsid
e teaching hospitals and large structures. Although it seems reasonable to
use conventional markers, most notably the serotype, whenever possible, the
limitations of these methods are particularly conspicuous with P. aerugino
sa. Combined use of several methods such as quantitative antibiotic suscept
ibility testing and serotype determination has proved adequate for characte
rizing P. aeruginosa strains in some cases. In the case of the outbreak rep
orted herein, this approach failed to provide high quality epidemiological
data. In contrast, pulsed field gel electrophoresis ruled out epidemic spre
ad of a P. aeruginosa strain in the clinical hematology department.