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Predominance of a Single Restriction Endonuclease Analysis Group with Intrahospital Subgroup Diversity Among Clostridium difficile Isolates at Two Chicago Hospitals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Abstract
To determine the epidemiology and relatedness of Clostridium difficile isolates in two geographically separated hospitals in a large metropolitan area, each with unique patients and personnel.
Observational descriptive molecular epidemiology of clinical C. difficile isolates.
Two tertiary-care hospitals in Chicago.
Consecutive C. difficile isolates from the clinical laboratory of a Veterans Affairs hospital during a 13-month period were typed by restriction endonuclease analysis (REA). During an overlapping 3-month period, stool specimens that tested positive for C. difficile toxin from patients at a nearby county hospital were cultured and the recovered isolates typed by the same method.
Nineteen (68%) of 28 nosocomial isolates at the smaller, Veterans Affairs hospital belonged to REA group K. Within this group of closely related strains, 9 distinct REA types were recognized. Twenty-one (72%) of 29 nosocomial isolates at the larger, county hospital also belonged to group K. However, the predominant REA types within group K differed markedly at each institution.
These findings demonstrate a high degree of similarity among nosocomial C. difficile strains from different hospitals in the same city and suggest the possibility of an extended outbreak of a prototype group K strain with subsequent genetic drift at the two different institutions.
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- Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2002
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