Objective: The aim of this study was estimation of usefulness of two molecular methods for Mycobacterium tuberculosis typing in the epidemiological research of tuberculosis (TB). We determined molecular patterns of M. tuberculosis strains isolated from 66 patients, members of 29 families living in 9 voivodeships of Poland. We also analysed drug susceptibility of the strains as well as some demographic characteristics of the patients.
Methods: The genotype analysis of the 66 clinical isolates was performed by using spoligotyping and IS6110-Mtb1/Mtb2 PCR.
Main observations: Of the 29 families examined in this study, in 23 each family member was infected with the same M. tuberculosis strain. Three drug-resistant strains and two members of the Beijing family were identified.
Results: We found that strains within each of the 23 families had the same genetic patterns, whereas those of the strains identified in the rest 6 families were different. Among those 6 families, in 3 differentiation of the strains was obtained with both spoligotyping and IS6110-Mtb1/Mtb2 PCR analysis, while in another 3 only with spoligotyping method.
Conclusions: Based on the results from this study, the two genotyping methods used were demonstrated as an efficient approach for investigating the epidemiological relatedness of TB cases.