Detection and differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial isolates by real-time PCR.

ABSTRACT: Mycobacteria cause a variety of illnesses that differ in severity and public health implications. The differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is of primary importance for infection control and choice of antimicrobial therapy. Despite advances in molecular diagnostics, the ability to rapidly diagnose M. tuberculosis infections by PCR is still inadequate, largely because of the possibility of false-negative reactions. We designed and validated a real-time PCR for mycobacteria by using the LightCycler system with 18 reference strains and 168 clinical mycobacterial isolates. All clinically significant mycobacteria were detected; the mean melting temperatures (with 99.9% confidence intervals [99.9% CI] in parentheses) for the different mycobacteria w

SUBMITTER: Shrestha NK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC262464 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature