Genomic analysis of Vibrio vulnificus by Infrequent Restriction Site-Polymerase Chain Reaction / 대한임상미생물학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Vibrio vulnificus sepsis is one of the notifiable disease(Class 3) in Korea. It is usually acquired through the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood in summer. We studied the clinical findings of V. vulnificus septicemia and the genomic patterns of V. vulnificus isolates. METHODS: Seven patients with V. vulnificus septicemia were admitted to Hanyang University hospital from 1998 to 2002. We analysed the clinical findings and the genomic patterns by infrequent restriction site-polymerase chain reaction(IRS-PCR). RESULTS: All patients were over forty years old, and five were male. The patients had underlying diseases;five with liver cirrhosis, two with DM, and four patients with heavy alcoholism. Five of seven patients had history of ingesting raw fish and four had tissue necrosis with bullae or vesicles in their extremities. Four patients who died showed disseminated intravascular coagulation symptoms. We applied IRS-PCR to 6 isolates from blood and 2 isolates from wound. The six isolates from blood showed various genomic patterns that were all different from one another, while the two isolates from wound showed IRS-PCR patterns that were identical to the blood isolates of the same patients. CONCLUSIONS: The genomic patterns of IRS-PCR are quite different in 6 cases of V. vulnificus isolates in Korea.