对检测麻风菌用的几种PCR方法进行了比较研究。这些PCR以编码麻风菌65KD、36KD、18KD、groEL和16s rRNA的基因为基础。比较用的指标是敏感性、特异性、简易快速和节省试剂，结果显示以编码麻风菌65KD抗原的基因为基础的PCR(此法原为Woods报告，后经我们优化改良)为最实用，其检测下限为10～100条麻风菌，与其它已知的分枝菌无交叉反应，用单对引物，仅需30个循环，以2．5～3个小时就能完成实验，且用料仅为其它常用反应体系的l／2，敏感性高、特异性强，简单、快速、价廉，故适于推广应用。

We report a woman in whom a slow-growing scotochromogenic strain of Mycobacterium was cultured from skin lesions. According to its phenotypic and biochemical characteristics we could predict only that it might be M. szulgai, M. scrofulaceum or M. gordonae. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of the hsp65 gene and subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis on the isolated strain showed that its restriction pattern differed from both M. scrofulaceum and other scotochromogenic species. Ninety-nine per cent similarity was detected between the isolated strain and M. gordonae by sequencing of the hsp65 gene. This result suggests that the isolated strain may be either a slow-growing scotochromogenic Mycobacterium most resembling M. gordonae or a novel mycobacterial species.

This article reports the identification of 57 AFB cultures isolated from clinical specimens by using traditional methods (TM, including biochemical and cultural methods) and modern ELISA with monoclonal antibody (McAb-ELISA) and nested primer gene amplification assay (NPGAA). The representive AFB culture M. A1, A7, A19, A21 and A22) isolated from human lepromas were identified as new species by TM and it was shown that they were not identical to M. leprae by McAb-ELISA and NPGAA. Among another set of samples (M. S17, S1, S2, S2R, S7, S29), M. S17 was identical to M. scrofulaceum as assessed by TM only, while the others were found to be similar to M. tuberculosis and different from M. leprae using TM and McAb-ELISA, and identical to M. tuberculosis with NPGAA. The authors conclude that TM and MM are very useful for identifying mycobacteria, while MM was much more sensitive and specific than TM. The selection and use of these methods depends on practical need.

Objective. So far, it has not been established a satisfactorymethod for early diagnosis and studying on ep idem iology for lep rosy, we want to develop a molecular biologicalmethod for solving th is point. Materials and methods. Based on theM. leprae gene coding groEL, 65kD and 16S rRNA, th ree poly-merase chain reactionsw ere developed by using plikaytis', Woods' and Pattyn's p rocedures. It was op ti-mized that the experimental parameters for each PCR, and a comparative study on practivity among three PCR sw as also conducted for practical purpose. Results and conclusion. For detecting infection with M. leprae, all of PCR s established by us were high ly sensitive and specific, but for practicl purpose, thewoods' PCR optimized by us ought to be chosen firstly.