pubmed:abstractText |
One of the challenges facing the tuberculosis (TB) control programmes in resource-limited settings is lack of rapid techniques for detection of drug resistant TB, particularly multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB). Results obtained with the conventional indirect susceptibility testing methods come too late to influence a timely decision on patient management. More rapid tests directly applied on sputum samples are needed. This study compared the sensitivity, specificity and time to results of four direct drug susceptibility testing tests with the conventional indirect testing for detection of resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid in M. tuberculosis. The four direct tests included two in-house phenotypic assays - Nitrate Reductase Assay (NRA) and Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS), and two commercially available tests - Genotype MTBDR and Genotype MTBDRplus (Hain Life Sciences, Nehren, Germany).
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