Evaluation of a new phage amplification technology for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis.
OBJECTIVE
Rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis is essential to initiate timely and appropriate treatment to curb the spread of this potentially life threatening disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a phage amplification technology viz., FASTPlaque TB, for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.


METHODS
We evaluated the clinical utility of this new assay by analyzing 50 respiratory and 40 non-respiratory specimens, using FASTPlaque TB kit (Biotec Laboratories, UK) and the performance was compared with TB Bactec 460 semi-automated liquid culture system and conventional LJ culture method.


RESULTS
In case of respiratory specimens phage assay gave good specificity (100%) compared with TB Bactec whereas with respect to LJ method the sensitivity and specificity were 93.1% and 88.2% respectively. In case of non-respiratory specimens comparison of results obtained by phage assay showed sensitivity of 90.9% and specificity of 88.8% with respect to TB Bactec and 87.5% and 93.8% with respect to LJ method.


CONCLUSIONS
We believe that this new low cost assay may have widespread applicability, especially in developing countries, due to its manual format and rapid reporting of results.
Shenai
S
S
PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Center, Veer Savarkar Marg, Mahim, Mumbai - 400 016, India.
Rodrigues
C
C
Mehta
A P
AP