OBJECTIVE To assess the frequency of primary drug resistance among newly diagnosed tuberculosis cases in Karachi. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Multicentric study involving various TB clinics and treatment centres of Karachi between April to December 2005. METHODOLOGY The frequency of drug resistance among new TB patients was evaluated using a non-probabi...

Methods for the isolation and spectrophotometric determination of cytochrome P-450 in mycobacteria were standardized. Cytochrome P-450 levels were estimated in Mycobacterium tuberculosis organisms sensitive to both isoniazid and rifampicin and resistant to any of the two drugs. Cytochrome P-450 was isolated and its presence was shown in M. smegmatis, M. fortuitum, M. chelonae and M. tuberculosi...

Mycobacterium bovis is a pathogen of cattle. The unpasteurized milk of affected cattle is a source of infection in humans. Despite the screening of cattle and the pasteurization of milk, M bovis has not been eradicated. A high index of clinical suspicion is needed in symptomatic patients with a history of possible exposure. At risk groups include animal workers, farmers, meat packers, vets and ...

In the UK, HIV is considered to be a risk factor for antituberculosis drug resistance. Evidence of the association is, however, inconclusive and there are few population-level data. The present study investigated the association in England and Wales during the period 1999-2005. National tuberculosis surveillance data for adults were matched to HIV/AIDS reports. Unmatched cases were assumed to b...

BACKGROUND Fluoroquinolones and second-line injectable drugs are the backbone of treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and resistance to these drugs defines extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. We assessed the accuracy of an automated, cartridge-based molecular assay for the detection, directly from sputum specimens, of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with resistance to fluoro...

receive isoniazid if their TB developed when they were young. In the present study, the resistant rate was lower for M. tuberculosis strains isolated from elderly persons than from younger adults. These fi ndings suggest that fi rst-line anti-TB medications still have good in vitro activity against M. tuberculosis strains in elderly patients. In contrast to the study by Vinnard et al. (1), our ...

BACKGROUND About 500 new smear-positive Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases are estimated to occur per year in Uganda. In 2008 in Kampala, MDR-TB prevalence was reported as 1.0% and 12.3% in new and previously treated TB cases respectively. Line probe assays (LPAs) have been recently approved for use in low income settings and can be used to screen smear-positive sputum specimens fo...

BACKGROUND The objectives of the study were to compare the performance of line probe assay (GenoType MTBDRplus) with solid culture method for an early diagnosis of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and to study the mutation patterns associated with rpoB, katG and inhA genes at a tertiary care centre in north India. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, 269 previously treated sputum-...