BACKGROUND Pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium kansasii is reported in approximately 50 new patients in Britain annually. Rifampicin and ethambutol are effective in vitro but the optimal duration of treatment, and whether isoniazid should also be given, are uncertain. The British Thoracic Society has conducted a prospective, multicentre study of the treatment of this condition with rifamp...

The new GenoType Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance second line (MTBDRsl) assay (Hain Lifescience, Nehren, Germany) was tested on 106 clinical isolates and directly on 64 sputum specimens for the ability to detect resistance to fluoroquinolones, injectable drugs (amikacin or capreomycin), and ethambutol in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains. A total of 63 strains harboring fluoroquinolo...

tuberculosis is a serious global public health problem and its high prevalence is stron gly associated with the enhancement of drug resistance. in this study we demonstrate a multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (mas)-pcr assay to simultaneously detect mutations in the first and third bases of the embb gene codon 306 atg in ethambutol (emb) resistant isolates of mycobacterium tub...

A number of antimycobacterial agents were evaluated with respect to their bacteriostatic activity (growth inhibition) versus the bactericidal activity against a clinical isolate of Mycobacterium avium (Mycobacterium avium complex [MAC] strain 101) in relation to the time of exposure and the growth phase of the mycobacteria. In terms of growth inhibition the MAC in the active phase of growth was...

Adverse reactions and toxicity inevitably accompany all treatment courses for drug-resistant TB. Our case underscores the importance of awareness regarding neuropsychiatric adverse reactions due to MDR-TB therapy and reversible nature of it. Cycloserine induced psychosis is most life threatening complication and sometimes could be fatal. A 42-year-old male on MDR-TB therapy got admitted for his...

BACKGROUND Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis infections cause public health concerns worldwide. Local epidemiologic data about the drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolate (Mtb) is critical to guide appropriate empirical therapy to cure patients and restrain the spread of tuberculosis. METHODS Antituberculosis susceptibility testing was performed for...

Treatment of either Mycobacterium tuberculosis or M. smegmatis with ethambutol results both in inhibition of arabinan synthesis and in copious loss of previously formed arabinan from the cell wall. The loss of arabinan has been shown to be due to the action of an endogenous arabinase. To better understand this phenomenon, a quantitative assay for endogenous arabinase was developed. Using the as...