Blinded Comparison of Repetitive-Sequence PCR and Multilocus Sequence Typing for Genotyping Methicillin-Resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Isolates from a Children's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri

Abstract

We performed a blinded study to compare repetitive-sequence PCR and multilocus sequence typing for genotyping hospital- and community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The MRSA strains that were sequence type 8 (ST8), staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type IV, and Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive clustered separately from those that were ST5 and SCCmec type II.