Detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B and toxic shock syndrome toxin: PCR versus conventional methods.

An equal accuracy of commercially available kits, i.e., the reverse passive latex agglutination test (RPLA-Oxoid) and the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (SET-EIA Riedel Haen, Germany) to identify the presence of the staphylococcal enterotoxin B and the toxic shock syndrome toxin TSST-1 as well as the PCR-technique to detect the presence of the seb and tst-genes was demonstrated in 18 Staphylococcus aureus isolates. Selection of a primer pair from the etb gene sequence allowing simultaneously detection of the etb and tst-genes in S. aureus using a rapid DNA extraction method is emphasized.