@article{8686,
  keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Child, Child, Preschool, Colombia, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, genotype, Humans, Infant, leprosy, Male, Middle Aged, Mycobacterium leprae, Tandem Repeat Sequences, Young Adult},
  author = {Torres-Avila J and Colorado C and Gamboa LA and Araujo MG S and León-Franco CI and Guerrero-Guerrero MI},
  title = {[Genotyping Colombian Mycobacterium leprae for determining disease transmission patterns].},
  abstract = {<p><b>OBJECTIVE: </b>Assessing VNTR (variable-number tandem repeat) variability of Mycobacterium leprae from Colombian patients with and without prior treatment to identify potential sources of infection and to understand the patterns of disease transmission.</p><p><b>METHODOLOGY: </b>This was a descriptive cross-sectional study where a convenience sample of biopsies was taken from 161 multibacillary leprosy patients; diagnosis and monitoring of the disease had been requested for these patients. DNA was extracted from M. leprae and standardised using the PCR technique for M. leprae VNTR, ge-notypes were established and different clusters grouped by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA).</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>22 different VNTR genotypes were found from 161 samples, of which 100 samples (62.1%) had a single u-VNTR genotype and the remaining genotypes were VNTR 17 (5.6%), VNTR 20 (4.3%), VNTR 18 (4.3%), VNTR 14 (4.3%) and VNTR 13 (3.7%), namely those forming groups or clusters.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION: </b>This study showed that clones can be detected with varying degrees of virulence / aggressiveness by cluster analysis, implying the need for more monitoring programme activities which will result in a real decline in microorganism transmission.</p>},
  year = {2009},
  journal = {Revista de salud publica (Bogota, Colombia)},
  volume = {11},
  pages = {3-13},
  month = {2009 Jan-Feb},
  issn = {0124-0064},
  language = {spa},
}