CLSI Publishes Approved Guideline for Bacterial Strain Typing.

WAYNE, Pa. -- Molecular strain typing has become an essential tool for the analysis of bacterial pathogens obtained during investigations of epidemiologic outbreaks, laboratory contamination, and recurrent infection. Similarly, the results of bacterial strain typing are now used in many different contexts, including clinical care settings; public health investigations, particularly of emerging infections; the food and pharmaceutical industries; and environmental analyses. A wide variety of strain typing methods have been described using contemporary DNA-based technologies. However, developing methods and generating data have proven easier than defining robust approaches for interpreting the results.

In response to this need, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) recently published a new, approved document, Molecular Methods for Bacterial Strain Typing; Approved Guideline (MM11-A), which examines the biology behind molecular strain typing and the process of characterizing and validating typing systems. This document provides the much-needed framework to facilitate consistency in reporting bacterial strain typing and to assist both laboratories performing these studies and professionals applying the results.

The guideline describes the prevalent methods for bacterial strain typing with a focus on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Specific issues in analyzing typing data derived from these methods are also discussed. The guideline offers a general approach, suitable for use in the situations commonly encountered in clinical laboratories, for interpreting and reporting molecular typing results. For selected bacterial pathogens, the application of molecular typing systems and the insights derived are considered in detail.

For additional information on CLSI or for further information regarding this release, visit our website at http://www.clsi.org or call 610.688.0100.

CLSI is a global, nonprofit, membership-based organization dedicated to developing standards and guidelines for the healthcare and medical testing community. CLSI's unique consensus process facilitates the creation of standards and guidelines that are reliable, practical, and achievable for an effective quality system.