Abstract
When microbial strain-typing methods are compared, the most important characteristics are typeability, reproducibility, and discriminatory power. While typeability and reproducibility can be presented as numerical values, indices of discriminatory power have only recently been described. This paper examines the relationship between reproducibility and indices of discriminatory power. In an individual typing method, an inverse relationship between reproducibility and discriminatory power appears as the number of test differences required in order to distinguish between strains is increased. A method of standardizing the discriminatory power of a typing method to a predetermined reproducibility is presented. In this way the discriminatory powers of different typing methods can be compared while being standardized for the effect of reproducibility.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Gaston M. A. Evaluation of a bacteriophage-typing scheme for Enterobacter cloacae. J Med Microbiol. 1987 Dec;24(4):291–295. doi: 10.1099/00222615-24-4-291. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gaston M. A., Hunter P. R. Efficient selection of tests for bacteriological typing schemes. J Clin Pathol. 1989 Jul;42(7):763–766. doi: 10.1136/jcp.42.7.763. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hunter P. R., Fraser C. A. Application of a numerical index of discriminatory power to a comparison of four physiochemical typing methods for Candida albicans. J Clin Microbiol. 1989 Oct;27(10):2156–2160. doi: 10.1128/jcm.27.10.2156-2160.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hunter P. R., Gaston M. A. Numerical index of the discriminatory ability of typing systems: an application of Simpson's index of diversity. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Nov;26(11):2465–2466. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.11.2465-2466.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lai P. S., Ngeow Y. F., Puthucheary S. D., Wang C. W. Comparison of two methods for bacteriocin typing of Serratia marcescens. J Clin Microbiol. 1983 Jan;17(1):1–6. doi: 10.1128/jcm.17.1.1-6.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lee W., Burnie J., Matthews R. Fingerprinting Candida albicans. J Immunol Methods. 1986 Nov 6;93(2):177–182. doi: 10.1016/0022-1759(86)90186-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Selander R. K., Caugant D. A., Ochman H., Musser J. M., Gilmour M. N., Whittam T. S. Methods of multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for bacterial population genetics and systematics. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1986 May;51(5):873–884. doi: 10.1128/aem.51.5.873-884.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]