Int J Mol Sci. 2012;13(3):2535-2550.
Comparative Retrospective Study: A total of 168 chronic wounds were studied, using both aerobic bacterial cultures and culture-free DNA analysis. Seventeen (17) different bacterial taxa were identified with culture, and 338 different bacterial taxa were identified with molecular testing. The majority of bacteria identified with the molecular testing were not identified with culture testing; many of these bacteria were obligate anaerobes. In the majority of the samples, culture underreported the diversity of the wound microbiota and failed to detect the most abundant bacteria in the wound. This study demonstrates the increased sensitivity that molecular microbial identification can have over culture methodologies. Read Study