Reliable identification of mycobacterial species by PCR-restriction enzyme analysis (PRA)-hsp65 in a reference laboratory and elaboration of a sequence-based extended algorithm of PRA-hsp65patterns

Table 6 Summary of concordance among species identification results obtained by PRA-hsp65, phenotypic evaluation and sequence analysis of the hsp65 gene.

hsp65sequence	N	PRA-hsp65			Phenotypic identification
		Concordant	New Pattern	Discordant	Concordant	Ambiguous	Discordant
Not done^a	321	321	--	--	321	--	--
Done	113	71	30	12	17	63	33
Total	434	392 (90.3%)	30 (6.9%)	12 (2.8%)	338 (77.9%)	63 (14.5%)	33 (7.6%)

^a Isolates for which species identification by PRA-hsp65 and phenotypic/biochemical evaluation were concordant were not sequenced. Based on prior reports by the authors and others, sequencing hsp65 in such isolates almost invariably confirms the species identification of the other methods.

ISSN: 1471-2180