Sensitive diagnosis of paucibacillary tuberculosis with targeted next-generation sequencing: a molecular diagnostic study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) enables high-performance tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and drug resistance prediction directly from clinical samples. However, its applicability to paucibacillary TB, including pediatric TB and extrapulmonary TB (EPTB), has been less explored. We aimed to evaluate the performance of tNGS in these challenging TB presentations.

Methods

We prospectively and consecutively enrolled children (< 18 years) with suspected TB and adults with suspected EPTB. All participants underwent a comprehensive clinical examination, laboratory tests, and tNGS analysis. The diagnostic performance of tNGS was evaluated against composite reference standards, while resistance prediction capabilities were assessed with GeneXpert MTB/RIF and phenotypi

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11948806 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature