title: Does molecular typing make any contribution to the care of patients with infection?
abstract: Molecular typing has been used extensively to study the epidemiology of infection, but there are few studies on the role of typing in the clinical management of infected patients. Examples of this include distinguishing relapse of infection from new infection, determining the significance of colonisation with potential pathogens, assessing the capacity of isolates to spread and cause serious illness, and linking changes in antimicrobial resistance with treatment. Further studies in selected patient groups and greater collaboration between molecular microbiologists, clinical microbiologists and infectious disease physicians are required to determine the impact of molecular typing in these and other scenarios.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Humphreys
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002175:Candida / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length