Multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is an emerging problem of great importance to public health, with higher mortality rates than drug-sensitive TB, particularly in immunocompromised patients. MDR-TB patients require treatment with more-toxic second-line drugs and remain infectious for longer than patients infected with drug-sensitive strains, incurring higher costs due to p...

An HLA-E-specific oligonucleotide probe was used to study the expression of HLA-E. This probe detects two HLA-E transcripts, 1.8 and 2.7 kb in size, which are present in varying ratios in all tissues and cell lines investigated. We demonstrate that alternative poly(A) site usage accounts for the differential regulation of the two HLA-E mRNA species. Sequence analysis of three cDNA clones, repre...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among patients with new smear-positive pulmonary TB in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. METHODS Sputum samples were cultured from 1 006 patients newly diagnosed with TB in 2008. The core region of the rpoB gene that is associated with resistance to rifampin was sequenced. All isolates with rpoB mutations were sent to the...

SETTING Implementation of novel diagnostic assays in tuberculosis (TB) laboratory diagnosis requires effective management of time and resources. OBJECTIVE To further develop and assess at multiple centres a time-and-motion (T&M) tool as an objective means for recording the actual time spent on running laboratory assays. DESIGN Multicentre prospective study conducted in six European Union (E...

Ongoing evolution of viral pathogens is a significant issue in diagnostic virology employing TaqMan qPCR/RT-qPCR. Specific concerns are related to false negativity due to probe binding failure. One option for compensating for such deficiency is to integrate a second identically labelled probe in the assay. However, how this alteration influences the reaction parameters has not been comprehensiv...

The global extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) response plan calls for implementation of rapid tests to screen patients at risk of drug-resistant TB. Currently, two line probe assays exist, the INNO-LiPA(R)Rif.TB assay (Innogenetics, Ghent, Belgium) and the GenoType MTBDR assay (Hain LifeScience GmbH, Nehren, Germany). While LiPA studies have been reviewed, the accuracy of GenoType ass...

Biochemical changes in living cells are detected using a fiber probe system composed of a single chalcogenide fiber acting as both the sensor and transmission line for infrared optical signals. The signal is collected via evanescent wave absorption along the tapered sensing zone of the fiber. We spectroscopically monitored the effects of the surfactant Triton X-100, which serves as a toxic agen...

BACKGROUND In real-time PCR assays, the most accurate way to identify false-negative results, e.g., those caused by PCR inhibitors, is to add to samples an internal control that will be coamplified with the target (e.g., pathogen) DNA. Current internal control procedures, however, which usually involve the introduction of a DNA fragment, are complex, time-consuming, and expensive. METHODS Sin...

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) have been recognized as etiologic factors in a variety of diseases. Due to the large number of HPV types, methods for HPV genotyping are difficult to standardize. Despite this fact, several methods exist, and some of them are available commercially. In this study, we evaluated the Roche Diagnostics linear array (LA) HPV genotyping assay, the Innogenetics INNO-LiPA ...