Detection of penicillin susceptibility in Streptococcus pneumoniae by pbp2b PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis

A PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism strategy directed against the pbp2b gene was evaluated for identification of penicillin susceptibility. A total of 106 United Kingdom (U.K.), 30 Danish, and 11 Papua New Guinean strains were tested. Of the U.K. strains, all the susceptible and all but one of the resistant isolates were correctly assigned. By using conventional definitions of 'not resistant' and 'not susceptible,' the sensitivities were 97.5 and 94.4%, the specificities were 100 and 98.9%; the positive predictive values were 100 and 94.4%, and the negative predictive values were 93.1 and 98.9%, respectively. This technique may allow susceptible (MIC, < 0.1 mg/liter) and resistant (MIC, > 1 mg/liter) isolates to be distinguished in a single PCR.