Usefulness of arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) method for DNA fingerprinting analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB); comparison between DNA restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) method and AP-PCR method

We have been analyzing cases suspected as outbreak of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Tokyo using RFLP method. This time we analyzed 27 strains of MTB from 5 cases in two hospitals, a family, member of social activity and stuff of a corporation using both RFLP and AP-PCR methods. At 4 cases, over 80% of strains were same pattern in each cases with RFLP and AP-PCR and were identified as a patient to patients transmission of MTB. At one case, in a hospital, each strains were completely different patterns at both methods, which showed it was not a outbreak case. Results of RFLP and AP-PCR were completely same, which indicates AP-PCR is also useful and rapid method for epidemiological analysis of MTB infection as well as RFLP.