title: Investigation of a pseudo-outbreak of Nocardia asteroides infection by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR.
abstract: Molecular strain typing by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis was used to investigate a cluster of four Nocardia asteroides isolates associated with the BACTEC 460 TB system. An instrument motor drive misalignment resulted in inadequate needle sterilization and cross-contamination of BACTEC vials. This pseudo-outbreak illustrates the importance of proper BACTEC 460 needle sterilization and maintenance and confirms the usefulness of molecular typing methods for epidemiologic investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, and University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Louie
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Simor
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004203:Disinfection; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods*; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D006801:Humans; D009339:Needles; D009617:Nocardia Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D009616:Nocardia asteroides / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial