Abstract
Background: Patients are often screened with surveillance cultures to discern transmissions vs transformation of an isolate to vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. To determine the amount of time between which isolates could be considered genetically similar by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, isolate change over time within single patients was studied. Methods: A minimum of 4 isolates per patient, separated by at least 2 months, were collected from previously frozen stores. Visual comparison of banding patterns was conducted, and percent relatedness was calculated. Results: Twenty-eight isolates from 6 patients were studied. No isolate differed by more than 3 bands before 150 days, and the average percent difference per band was 3.7%. The isolates diverged genetically as a linear function of number of bands over time (good model fit intrapatient r2 = 0.42; poor model fit interpatient r2 = 0.0062). Conclusion: Trajectory of genetic variation appears to be isolate/patient specific; however, commonalities exist and tested isolates were relatively stable out to 150 days.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 349-353 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | American Journal of Infection Control |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2013 |
Funding
This study was supported in part by a Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy Faculty Research Stimulation Grant .
Keywords
- Faecium
- Genetic
- Infection control
- PFGE
- Vancomycin-resistant enterococci
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Infectious Diseases
- Health Policy
- Epidemiology