When the performance of the BACTEC MGIT 960 system was evaluated with the traditional proportion method (PM) on 321 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from China, concordance values were 98.44% capreomycin, 98.75% kanamycin, 98.75% ofloxacin and 94.08% ethionamide. The turnaround time with BACTEC MGIT 960 system (7.5±1.8 days) was significantly shorter than with PM (28 days or 42 d...

Levofloxacin, the active l-isomer of the quinolone ofloxacin, is now widely accepted for treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Because the drug is now widely used, we sought to establish susceptibility test conditions for Mycobacterium tuberculosis against levofloxacin by the traditional reference method, agar proportion (AP), the commonly used BACTEC 460 radiometric system, and the ne...

The susceptibility of 428 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to pyrazinamide was assessed by the Bactec method and the Wayne pyrazinamidase assay. The correlation between the two tests was 98.2 and 100% for susceptible and resistant strains, respectively. False resistance was seen in four (0.8%) strains with the Bactec test, and false-susceptible results occurred in two (0.5%) pyra...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the inexpensive colorimetric nitrate reductase-based antibiotic susceptibility (CONRAS) assay for testing the susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to streptomycin and ethambutol in liquid cultures, and to compare the CONRAS test with the manual mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) test, using the radiometric BACTEC 460TB method as reference. METHODS A total...

PURPOSE To evaluate the role of the radiometric BACTEC 460TB system and the conventional Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium for isolation of M. tuberculosis from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) patients. METHODS CSF specimens (n=2325) from suspected TBM patients were processed for isolation of mycobacteria by inoculating BACTEC 12B medium and the LJ medium. The is...

Reproducibility of ethambutol (EMB) susceptibility test results for Mycobacterium tuberculosis has always been difficult for a variety of reasons, including the narrow range between the critical breakpoint for EMB resistance and the MIC for susceptible strains, borderline results obtained with the BACTEC 460TB method, the presence of microcolonies determined using the agar proportion (AP) metho...

PURPOSE To evaluate the utility of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for diagnosing osteoarticular tuberculosis (TB). METHODS Clinical samples (synovial tissue and synovial fluid) obtained from 23 cases of suspected osteoarticular tuberculosis were subjected to Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) smear examination, radiometric BACTEC culture and PCR test for tuberculosis by amplifying 65 kDa antigen co...

The BACTEC NR660 blood culture system, which uses infrared spectroscopy to detect carbon dioxide generated by bacterial growth, was compared with the new medium formulation of the Oxoid Signal system. Two trials were conducted: a comparative study of 88 organisms in simulated blood cultures and a clinical trial of 3,321 paired patient blood culture samples. Both trials showed that overall the B...

Received 22 May2013 Revised 26 July 2013 Accepted 27 July 2013 Early online 28 July 2013 Print 31 August 2013 This study attempts to determine and compare the sensitivity, specificity and turnaround time of conventional diagnostic modalities, BACTEC culture and polymerase chain reaction test for diagnosis of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. One hundred clinically suspected patients of extra-pulmon...