Comparison of Culture and Molecular Identification of Bacteria in Chronic Wounds
Randall D. Wolcott1
Southwest Regional Wound Care Center, Lubbock, TX 79410, USA
2
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, Lubbock, TX 79415, USA
3
Research and Testing Laboratory, Lubbock, TX 79407, USA
4
Pathogenius Laboratory, Lubbock, TX 79407, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13(3), 2535-2550; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms13032535
Received: 1 November 2011 / Revised: 30 January 2012 / Accepted: 13 February 2012 / Published: 23 February 2012
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Molecular Diagnostics)
Clinical diagnostics of chronic polymicrobial infections, such as those found in chronic wounds, represent a diagnostic challenge for both culture and molecular methods. In the current retrospective study, the results of aerobic bacterial cultures and culture-free bacterial identification using DNA analyses were compared. A total of 168 chronic wounds were studied. The majority of bacteria identified with culture testing were also identified with molecular testing, but the majority of bacteria identified with the molecular testing were not identified with culture testing. Seventeen (17) different bacterial taxa were identified with culture, and 338 different bacterial taxa were identified with molecular testing. This study demonstrates the increased sensitivity that molecular microbial identification can have over culture methodologies, and previous studies suggest that molecular bacterial identification can improve the clinical outcomes of patients with chronic wounds.
View Full-Text
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Rhoads, D.D.; Wolcott, R.D.; Sun, Y.; Dowd, S.E. Comparison of Culture and Molecular Identification of Bacteria in Chronic Wounds. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2012, 13, 2535-2550.
Show more citation formats
Search more from Scilit
