TY - JOUR T1 - Changes in MIRU-VNTR profiles are associated with treatment failures in tuberculosis patients JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA2684 VL - 48 IS - suppl 60 SP - PA2684 AU - Irina Kontsevaya AU - Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy AU - Alexander Kovalyov AU - Olga Ignatyeva AU - Edita Vasiliauskiene AU - Girts Skenders AU - Yanina Balabanova AU - Francis Drobniewski Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA2684.abstract N2 - Background: Superinfection by M. tuberculosis more frequently occurs in high drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) areas due to a large pool of chronic patients and poor infection control. The aim of the study was to estimate the superinfection rate in a multicentre TB patient cohort from a high drug-resistant TB burden regions and whether superinfection affects disease outcome.Methods: The study population included 513 serial M. tuberculosis isolates (2 to 8 per patient) obtained from 84 multi-drug resistant (MDR) and 136 non-MDRTB patients recruited sequentially at sites in Lithuania, Latvia and Russia; treatment outcomes were available for 173 of them. Strains were genotyped using standardised 24-loci MIRU-VNTR typing.Results: Changes in two or more VNTR loci suggesting superinfection were seen in strains isolated from 13 (8 non-MDRTB; 5 MDRTB) patients (5.9%). As a whole this group had higher treatment failure rates compared to other patients (5/13, 38.5% vs 26/160, 16.2%, RR=2.4, 95% CI=1.1-5.1). Non-MDRTB patients infected with a second TB strain had higher (although not significant) treatment failure rate (2/8, 25.0% vs 10/109, 9.2%, RR=2.7, 95% CI=0.7-10.4); MDRTB patients infected with a second strain showed similar rates of treatment failure as those not superinfected.Conclusion: A proportion of patients in high drug-resistant TB burden areas get superinfected with another TB strain during anti-TB treatment; the superinfection might be associated with higher failure rates in non-MDRTB patients. ER -