RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish virulent strain and mild strain of L. pneumophila.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Mortality data were collected from company departments through administrative documents, death certificates, etc. Trend analyses of cancer mortality were performed on the basis of 925 cancer deaths between 2001 and 2010.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Our results indicated that the peaks of high virulence strains reached ⋝4000. This criterion was verified by subsequent cell experiments. In addition, we also conducted SERS rapid identification on the virulence of several collected clinical strains and obtained accurate results.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The present study indicates that the established SERS protocol can be used as a rapid and reliable method to distinguish virulent and mildly virulent strains of L. pneumophila, which can be further used in clinical samples.</p>