Tuberculosis Research in Taiwan

sensitivity between 89.5 and 96.9% for rifampin and 82.1 and 89.3% for isoniazid and reported specificity ranging from 86.2 to 94.3% for rifampin and from 88.0 to 95.1% for isoniazid. Early identification of pathogen susceptibility to rifampin and isoniazid using TB-biochips results in a significantly better tretment outcome because of the introduction of adequate drug therapy at the earliest stages of treatment. The TB-BIOCHIP MDR test identifies more mutations responsible for resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid than any other commercially available test. Computerized registration and processing of the results yield unambiguous conclusions, excluding human error. Another system TB-BIOCHIP FQ allows detection of mutations in the gyrA gene responsible for resistance to fluoroquinolones (FQ). Using TBBIOCHIP FQ system it was shown that the proportion of patients with resistance infection did not exceed 2% among newly diagnosed TB cases, whereas this proportion was 10% or even more among chronic patients with already identified multidrug-resistant disease. The sensitivity and specificity of the “TB-Biochip FQ” test was determined in clinical trials and reached 81 and 96%, respectively.