Stability of DNA fingerprint pattern produced with IS6110 in strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

To assess the stability of IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns, DNA fingerprints of 6 Mycobacterium bovis isolates from 1 patient and of 41 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from 18 patients were compared. The fingerprint pattern for a given patient remained identical or nearly identical despite recovery of the isolates during intervals which ranged from 8 months to 4.5 years. Changes in drug resistance profile did not alter a strain's fingerprint pattern.