title: PCR-based capsular serotype determination of Haemophilus influenzae strains recovered from Japanese paediatric patients with invasive infection.
abstract: The serotypes of 53 isolates of Haemophilus influenzae from children with invasive infections were determined by a conventional slide agglutination test (SAT) and a recently proposed PCR-based method for serotyping H. influenzae. The PCR assay identified 47 (88.7%) type b isolates, one (1.9%) type e isolate and five (9.4%) non-typeable isolates. The only discrepancy between the methods was an isolate that was non-typeable by SAT, but was identified as serotype e by PCR. Of 41 isolates from patients with meningitis, 39 (95.1%) were type b. Of the five non-typeable isolates, three (60%) were from the blood of patients with septicaemic pneumonia and two (40%) were from the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with meningitis. None of the non-typeable isolates appeared to be a capsule-deficient mutant of an encapsulated H. influenzae strain. Overall, the study confirmed the usefulness of this PCR method for the serotyping of invasive H. influenzae isolates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Chuo-ku, Inohana, Japan. ishiwada@faculty.chiba-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ishiwada
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kohno
mesh_terms: D016667:Bacterial Capsules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D018073:Haemophilus Vaccines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D019741:Haemophilus influenzae type b / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008583:Meningitis, Haemophilus / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D012703:Serotyping / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D018073:Haemophilus Vaccines; C044237:Haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide vaccine; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial