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Home / The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 15, Number 7

Xpert MTB/RIF®, a novel automated polymerase chain reaction–based tool for the diagnosis of tuberculosis [Technical note]

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There is an urgent need for new point of care tests for tuberculosis (TB). Xpert MTB/RIF® is a real-time polymerase chain reaction–based system that detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and rifampicin (RMP) resistance modulating mutations directly from clinical samples in 2 h. The sensitivity for detecting M. tuberculosis in culture-positive samples was 93.8% (60/64) and exceeded smear microscopy (40/64, 62.5%). The specificity for detecting M. tuberculosis was 92.0% (23/25) and for RMP resistance it was 100% (8/8). The test is simple to conduct and requires basic sputum handling facilities only. These characteristics render it a promising close-to-patient test for TB in various settings.

Keywords: diagnostic tests; multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; routine; tuberculosis

Document Type: Short Communication

Affiliations: 1: Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Gelre Hospital, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands 2: National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands 3: National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 4: Laboratory for Clinical Microbiology Twente-Achterhoek, Enschede, The Netherlands 5: Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 6: National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Department of Clinical Microbiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Publication date: 01 July 2011

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  • The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) is for clinical research and epidemiological studies on lung health, including articles on TB, TB-HIV and respiratory diseases such as COVID-19, asthma, COPD, child lung health and the hazards of tobacco and air pollution. Individuals and institutes can subscribe to the IJTLD online or in print – simply email us at [email protected] for details.

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