TY - JOUR T1 - Enhanced diagnosis of tuberculosis using a dual gene target detection approach JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA2776 VL - 48 IS - suppl 60 SP - PA2776 AU - Ehsan Aryan AU - Fatemeh Estaji AU - Mahdi Kouhi-Noghondar AU - Masoud Yousefi AU - Zahra Meshkat AU - Mohammad Derakhshan AU - Bamdad Riahi-Zanjani Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA2776.abstract N2 - Since conventional methods for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) are insensitive or time-consuming, a large number of PCR-based assays have been introduced in recent years for rapid and sensitive diagnosis of TB using different gene targets. The present study aimed at detecting two popular targets, IS6110 and mpt64, simultaneously in clinical specimens to improve the value of molecular diagnostics for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC).In a cross-sectional study, specimens were collected from 167 patients suspected of having TB who referred to Qaem hospital, Mashhad, Iran. They fell into two TB (107 patients) and non-TB (60 patients) groups. Using a 10-fold serial dilution of MTB DNA, analytical sensitivities of IS6110- and mpt64-PCR were respectively ≥5 fg and ≥1 pg equivalent to 200 and one copies of purified MTB DNA/reaction. Using a 10-fold serial dilution of MTB cells, the analytical sensitivity of both assays was ≥170 CFU/ml relatively equivalent to 40 MTB cells/reaction. Overall diagnostic sensitivities of IS6110- and mpt64-PCR were 77.6% (CI, 68.5-85.1%) and 74.8% (CI, 65.5-82.7%), respectively (p=0.72). According to our results, if both assays are carried out on each clinical specimen, the overall sensitivity would increase to 90.7% (CI, 83.5-95.4%) which is significantly higher than that of IS6110-PCR (p=0.0005) and mpt64-PCR (p=0.0001) when are performed alone.Although IS6110 is a repetitive gene in MTB genome compared to mpt64, its detection in clinical specimens by PCR is not significantly more sensitive than that of mpt64. Remarkably, performing two PCR assays on a clinical specimen each targeting IS6110 and mpt64 can significantly improve the diagnostic value of PCR for TB. ER -