Table 1.

Ribotype distribution of a toxin-producing strain of Clostridium difficile among 307 patients in Hong Kong

	Total number of strains (%)	Total number of patients (%)
PCR ribotype 002a	35 (10.1%)	29 (9.4%)
PCR ribotype og39b	13 (3.8%)	11 (3.6%)
PCR ribotype 012	8 (2.3%)	7 (2.3%)
PCR ribotype 014	4 (1.2%)	4 (1.3%)
PCR ribotype 017	2 (0.6%)	2 (0.7%)
PCR ribotype 001	1 (0.3%)	1 (0.3%)
PCR ribotype 027	0	0
Other pattern	242 (70%)	221 (72%)c
Non-typable	40 (11.6%)	32 (10.4%)
Total	345	307

^aPCR ribotype 002 constituted 55.6% (35/63) of strains and 53.7% (29/54) of patients with known ribotyping results

^bThis cluster of strains was identified by slpA typing

^cUsing 80% similarity in the dendrogram as the cutoff value, there were 106 distinct patterns with no more than eight isolates in each pattern