Skip to main content
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 Jun;35(6):1398–1403. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.6.1398-1403.1997

Comparison of biotyping, ribotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for investigation of a common-source outbreak of Burkholderia pickettii bacteremia.

H Chetoui 1, P Melin 1, M J Struelens 1, E Delhalle 1, M M Nigo 1, R De Ryck 1, P De Mol 1
PMCID: PMC229757  PMID: 9163452

Abstract

Over a 3-month period, six immunocompromised patients developed one or more episodes of Burkholderia pickettii bacteremia and/or catheter infection. Vials of a commercially available, "sterile" saline for injection which had been used for flushing the patients' indwelling intravenous devices were implicated as the common source of the organisms. No further cases were diagnosed once the use of this saline was discontinued. Twenty-six isolates, including 9 outbreak-related strains from case patients and contaminated saline as well as 17 control strains, were tested comparatively by biotyping, ribotyping with EcoRI and HindIII, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with SpeI. Macrorestriction analysis revealed nine PFGE groups and was more discriminating than ribotyping (seven ribotypes) and biotyping (two biovars). Among the outbreak-related isolates, one B. pickettii type was found by the three typing methods. Furthermore, PFGE was useful for subdividing ribotypes and for distinguishing isolates involved in the outbreak from all epidemiologically unrelated strains.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (665.3 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chetoui H., Delhalle E., Osterrieth P., Rousseaux D. Ribotyping for use in studying molecular epidemiology of Serratia marcescens: comparison with biotyping. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Oct;33(10):2637–2642. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.10.2637-2642.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Chomarat M., Lepape A., Riou J. Y., Flandrois J. P. Septicémie à Pseudomonas picketti. Pathol Biol (Paris) 1985 Jan;33(1):55–56. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dimech W. J., Hellyar A. G., Kotiw M., Marcon D., Ellis S., Carson M. Typing of strains from a single-source outbreak of Pseudomonas pickettii. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Nov;31(11):3001–3006. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.11.3001-3006.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Fujita S., Yoshida T., Matsubara F. Pseudomonas pickettii bacteremia. J Clin Microbiol. 1981 Apr;13(4):781–782. doi: 10.1128/jcm.13.4.781-782.1981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Grothues D., Koopmann U., von der Hardt H., Tümmler B. Genome fingerprinting of Pseudomonas aeruginosa indicates colonization of cystic fibrosis siblings with closely related strains. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Oct;26(10):1973–1977. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.10.1973-1977.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lacey S., Want S. V. Pseudomonas pickettii infections in a paediatric oncology unit. J Hosp Infect. 1991 Jan;17(1):45–51. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(91)90076-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Li W. H. Simple method for constructing phylogenetic trees from distance matrices. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Feb;78(2):1085–1089. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.2.1085. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Liebisch B., Schwarz S. Evaluation and comparison of molecular techniques for epidemiological typing of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar dublin. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Mar;34(3):641–646. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.3.641-646.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Louie M., Jayaratne P., Luchsinger I., Devenish J., Yao J., Schlech W., Simor A. Comparison of ribotyping, arbitrarily primed PCR, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for molecular typing of Listeria monocytogenes. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Jan;34(1):15–19. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.1.15-19.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Maki D. G., Klein B. S., McCormick R. D., Alvarado C. J., Zilz M. A., Stolz S. M., Hassemer C. A., Gould J., Liegel A. R. Nosocomial Pseudomonas pickettii bacteremias traced to narcotic tampering. A case for selective drug screening of health care personnel. JAMA. 1991 Feb 27;265(8):981–986. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. McNeil M. M., Solomon S. L., Anderson R. L., Davis B. J., Spengler R. F., Reisberg B. E., Thornsberry C., Martone W. J. Nosocomial Pseudomonas pickettii colonization associated with a contaminated respiratory therapy solution in a special care nursery. J Clin Microbiol. 1985 Dec;22(6):903–907. doi: 10.1128/jcm.22.6.903-907.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Raveh D., Simhon A., Gimmon Z., Sacks T., Shapiro M. Infections caused by Pseudomonas pickettii in association with permanent indwelling intravenous devices: four cases and a review. Clin Infect Dis. 1993 Nov;17(5):877–880. doi: 10.1093/clinids/17.5.877. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Roberts L. A., Collignon P. J., Cramp V. B., Alexander S., McFarlane A. E., Graham E., Fuller A., Sinickas V., Hellyar A. An Australia-wide epidemic of Pseudomonas pickettii bacteraemia due to contaminated "sterile" water for injection. Med J Aust. 1990 Jun 18;152(12):652–655. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1990.tb125422.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Struelens M. J., Schwam V., Deplano A., Baran D. Genome macrorestriction analysis of diversity and variability of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains infecting cystic fibrosis patients. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Sep;31(9):2320–2326. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.9.2320-2326.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Tenover F. C., Arbeit R., Archer G., Biddle J., Byrne S., Goering R., Hancock G., Hébert G. A., Hill B., Hollis R. Comparison of traditional and molecular methods of typing isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Feb;32(2):407–415. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.2.407-415.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Verschraegen G., Claeys G., Meeus G., Delanghe M. Pseudomonas pickettii as a cause of pseudobacteremia. J Clin Microbiol. 1985 Feb;21(2):278–279. doi: 10.1128/jcm.21.2.278-279.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES