Comparative study between bactec magit 960 and fast plaque - response for susceptibility pattern to rifampicin in sputum specimens of tuberculous patients

ABSTRACT

Background: The emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is of growing concern. Multi-drug resistance [MDR-TB] where the strain is resistant to both rifampicin [RIF] and isoniazid [INH], has been reported in all regions of the world. Early choice, and rapid determination of drug resistance can allow a customized approach to treatment early in the course of the disease and can potentially reduce morbidity, mortality and infectiousness. It would be helpful for low-resource countries to have simple and inexpensive tests which can rapidly detect resistance to RIF .The excellent performance of the BACTEC MGIT 960 for rapid detection of resistance to first- and second-line anti-TB drugs can be accomplished in days rather than weeks, although still constrained by high cost equipments and consumables. FASTPlaque-Response is a phage amplification-based test for detection of RIF resistance and has been developed for direct use on sputum specimens