Comparison of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis & repetitive sequence-based PCR methods for molecular epidemiological studies of Escherichia coli clinical isolates.

Background & Objectives: PFGE, rep-PCR, and MLST are widely used to identify related bacterial isolates and determine epidemiologic associations during outbreaks. This study was performed to compare the ability of repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to determine the genetic relationships among Escherichia coli isolates assigned to various sequence types (STs) by two multilocus sequence typing (MLST) schemes.

Methods: A total of 41 extended-spectrum β-lactamase- (ESBL-) and/or AmpC β-lactamase-producing E.

Application of BRAF, NRAS, KRAS mutations as markers for the detection of papillary thyroid cancer from FNAB specimens by pyrosequencing analysis.

Background: BRAFV600E, the most common BRAF gene mutation, is detected in approximately 50% of sporadic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and may be associated with triggering tumorigenesis of PTC. The aim of our study was to discover additional mutations to increase the diagnostic performance of molecular tests in screening for thyroid cancer from fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) specimens.

Methods: DNA was extracted from 120 freshly obtained FNAB specimens selected according to cytopathology grades of the Bethesda system.