BACKGROUND The incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is increasing and the emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a major challenge. Controlling resistance, reducing transmission and improving treatment outcomes in MDR/XDR-TB patients is reliant on susceptibility testing. Susceptibility testing using phenotypic methods is labour intensive and time-cons...

Levofloxacin, the active l-isomer of the quinolone ofloxacin, is now widely accepted for treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Because the drug is now widely used, we sought to establish susceptibility test conditions for Mycobacterium tuberculosis against levofloxacin by the traditional reference method, agar proportion (AP), the commonly used BACTEC 460 radiometric system, and the ne...

The Bactec MGIT 960 system is a rapid and reliable automated method for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) that yields a high percentage of agreement with the standard method. The microscopic cord morphology of M. tuberculosis in liquid medium is characteristic, and readily differentiates MTBC from nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). The goals of this study ...

Background: Pyrazinamide (PZA) is one of the most important drugs for tuberculosis (TB) treatment, however, its susceptibility is not routinely tested. High-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis has been widely used for many applications. In this study, HRM assay was developed and evaluated for the detection of PZA resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates. Methods: Ninety fi...

The diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is challenging due to non-specific symptoms, invasive approach for specimen collection and most importantly, the paucibacillary status. The objective of this assay was to evaluate the efficacy of Myco/F lytic system, BACTEC Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) 960 system and Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) medium for recovery of bacilli from ster...

Received 22 May2013 Revised 26 July 2013 Accepted 27 July 2013 Early online 28 July 2013 Print 31 August 2013 This study attempts to determine and compare the sensitivity, specificity and turnaround time of conventional diagnostic modalities, BACTEC culture and polymerase chain reaction test for diagnosis of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. One hundred clinically suspected patients of extra-pulmon...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the performance of Genotype MTBDRplus VER 2.0 in the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in sputum smear-negative pulmonary TB cases. METHODS A total of 572 Ziehl-Neelsen sputum smear-negative samples were selected and subjected to line probe assay (Genotype MTBDRplus VER 2.0), and culture in mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT-960). Immunochromatographic...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the feasibility, cost and performance of rapid tuberculosis (TB) molecular and culture systems, in a high multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) middle-income region (Samara, Russia) and provide evidence for WHO policy change. METHODS Performance and cost evaluation was conducted to compare the BACTEC MGIT 960 system for culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) and molecula...

The Bactec MGIT 960 system for testing susceptibility to second-line drugs was evaluated with 117 clinical strains in a multicenter study. The four drugs studied were levofloxacin, amikacin, capreomycin, and ethionamide. The critical concentration established for levofloxacin and amikacin was 1.5 microg/ml, that established for capreomycin was 3.0 microg/ml, and that established for ethionamide...

digestion and decontamination was done by the NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide) -NALC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine) method, followed by centrifugation for 20 minutes at 3000 revolutions/minute. 0.5 ml of each concentrate was added into the 3 media. MGIT vials were monitored by the MGIT 960 system while the Bio FM and LJ media were examined upto 42 days and 56 days respectively for mycobacterial growth. Isolates ...