TABLE 4.

Evaluation of the experimental data obtained by PFGE of MRSA: pattern similarity (mean values) and range of the total number of bands per strain by epidemiological group

Center identification	In-house procedure						Standardized procedure
	Identical isolates (1 to 5)		Clustered isolates (6–10)		Independent isolates (11 to 20)		Identical isolates (1 to 5)		Clustered isolates (6 to 10)		Independent isolates (11 to 20)
	%	na	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	n
1	100	15	96	15–16	64	13–16	100	15	92	14–16	53	12–15
2	100	16	87	15–16	26	13–16	98	15	89	14–15	31	11–16
3	100	15	93	15–16	67	12–16	96	13	92	13–14	59	11–15
4	100	16	88	16–17	27	13–18	—b	—	—	—	—	—
5	100	15	93	14–15	38	10–15	—	—	—	—	—	—
6	100	16	89	16–17	22	14–18	—	—	—	—	—	—
7	100	10–12	94	9–10	30	8–12	98	12	87	11–12	55	10–14
8	100	16	87	16–17	34	12–17	92	16	62	17	31	14–18
9	98	16	79	13–14	52	13–16	94	14	94	13	67	12–14
10	100	16	68	14–16	30	11–18	100	15	85	14	44	10–15
11	100	15	—	14–16	—	12–18	100	15	—	15–17	—	11–18
12	100	17	85	16–17	49	16–18	—	—	—	—	—	—
Overall range (no. of fragment)		10–17		9–17		8–18		12–16		11–17		10–18
Avg	99.8		87.2		39.9		97.3		85.9		48.6
SD	0.6		7.6		15.0		2.8		10.2		12.8

^an: number of bands. 

^b—, no data or nonevaluable data.