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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2002, p. 3159-3161, Vol. 68, No. 6
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.6.3159-3161.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Existing in Tap Water by PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism

Department of Medical Research, Yuan's General Hospital, Kaohsiung,¹ Department of Medical Technology, Fooyin Institute of Technology, Ta-Liao Hsiang, Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan, Republic of China²

Received 12 November 2001/ Accepted 12 March 2002

This paper presents the finding of the possible cause of the high false-positive rate in acid-fast staining in histological examinations. Using acid-fast staining, culture, and PCR, acid-fast bacilli were detected in 83.7% of 49 hospital tap water samples and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) were detected in 20.4% of the same 49 samples. The 10 NTM isolates were also identified to the species level using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Our findings indicate that NTM in hospital tap water are the possible cause of false positives in acid-fast staining and of nosocomial infection in immunocompromised patients.