title: Investigation of suspected laboratory cross-contamination: interpretation of single smear-negative, positive cultures for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
abstract: Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis can be used to assess genetic relatedness of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. This study reports a collaborative investigation of false-positive cultures for M. tuberculosis, suspected when the DNA fingerprint from an index case matched an epidemiologically improbable source case. RFLP analysis matched fingerprints in ten of 16 cases of suspected laboratory contamination to four separate smear-positive sources that were processed on the same day in the same laboratory. All single smear-negative, positive cultures processed on the same day as smear-positive specimens should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to identify possible false-positive cultures.
authors.affiliation: Division of TB Control, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, Canada. victoria.cook@bccdc.ca
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Roscoe
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kwong
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Elwood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*