• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.281-289
• /
• 2000

Background : Mycobacterial culture is a confirmatory test to detect. M. tuberculosis, but it takes at least 6 weeks to diagnose. PCR is a rapid and sensitive method, but it is known that PCR has a high false positive rate due to contamination, and a high false negative rate due to inhibitors. It is also known that LCR and PCR-Hybridization, recently developed methods, are more specific methods than PCR in terms of detecting M. tuberculosis. In this study, we estimated the clinical utility of in house PCR, LCR and PCR-Hybridization for the detection of M. tuberculosis. Methods : We evaluated 75 specimens, upon which M. tuberculosis culture based testing was requested, by PCR LCR, and PCR-Hybridization and compared results. Mycobacterial culture was performed on 3% Ogawa media for 8 weeks, and an in house PCR, LCx Mycobacterium tuberculosis assay kit (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, III) and the AMPLICOR M. tuberculosis test kit (Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. Branchburg, NJ. USA). Results : In the view of the culture results, the sensitivities of the three tests were 40%, 80%, and 100% and their specificities were 98.6%, 94.3%, and 94.3%. Conclusion : LCR and PCR-Hybridization are rapid and sensitive methods for detecting M. tuberculosis in clinical laboratories.