TABLE 5.

Single and multiple possession of staphylococcal PTSAg and ET genes

SE genotype	S. aureus PTSAg/ET gene-positive isolates
	Blood (n = 219)		Nasal swabs (n = 210)		Total (n = 429)
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Single possession
sea	9	4.1	8	3.8	17	4.0
seb	7	3.2	3	1.4	10	2.3
sec	3	1.4	2	1.0	5	1.2
seh	1	0.5	2	1.0	3	0.7
tst	3	1.4	4	1.9	7	1.6
eta	0	0.0	1	0.5	1	0.2
Totala	23	10.5	20	9.5	43	10.0
Multiple possessionb
sea (in combination)	29	13.2	22	10.5	51	11.9
seb (in combination)	6	2.7	13	6.2	19	4.4
sec (in combination)	16	7.3	27	12.9	43	10.0
sed-sej (in combination)	23	10.5	7	3.3	30	7.0
see (in combination)	1	0.5	1	0.5	2	0.5
seg-sei (in combination)	116	53.0	120	57.1	236	55.0
seh (in combination)	9	4.1	11	5.2	20	4.7
tst (in combination)	37	16.9	43	20.5	80	18.6
eta (in combination)	1	0.5	3	1.4	4	0.9
etb (in combination)	0	0.0	2	1.0	2	0.5
Total	140	63.9	130	61.9	270	62.9
Total positivec	163	74.4	150	71.4	313	73.0
Subset of classical PTSAg or ET genesd	111	50.7	107	51.0	218	50.8
Total negativee	56	25.6	60	28.6	116	27.0
Subset of classical PTSAg or ET genesf	108	49.3	103	49.0	211	49.2

^aTotal of isolates with exclusive possession of only one of the PTSAg or ET genes tested. No clinical isolate was observed with sole possession of sed, see, seg, sei, sej, or etb.

^bThat is, possession of a gene or a fixed gene combination (sed-sej and seg-sei, respectively) in combination with further exotoxin genes tested.

^cPositive PCR result for one or more of all staphylococcal PTSAg and ET genes tested.

^dPositive PCR result for at least one of the classical PTSAg genes (sea, seb, sec, sed, see, and tst) and/or the ET genes (eta and etb).

^eNegative PCR result for all staphylococcal PTSAg and ET genes tested.

^fNegative PCR result for classical PTSAg and ET genes tested.