[Spoligotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Czech population (methods and pilot study)]

In the introduction the authors describe molecular genetic principles of spacer oligonucleotide typing of the M. tuberculosis complex and mention in detail the methodical procedure of implementation of this examination technique incl. computer analysis of results. In the pilot part of the study the authors describe examination of 71 strains of M. tuberculosis isolated from patients living in the capital of Prague and 37 strains from patients in the South Moravian region of the Czech Republic. In the group of Prague strains a total of 7 clusters was identified formed by 2-14 identical profiles of spoligotypes and 37 individually different profiles. In the South Moravian strains there were 6 clusters with 2-14 identical spoligotypes and 10 non-clustered profiles. In neither of the groups there were spoligotypes typical for the genetic family Beijing or Africa. The study is a preliminary molecular epidemiological analysis where DNA fingerprint RFLP profiles are compared with spoligotypes of strains of M. tuberculosis of patients from the capital of Prague and the South Moravian region of the Czech Republic.