title: Use of p-nitrobenzoic acid in 7H10 agar for identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex: a field study.
abstract: We report the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of p-nitrobenzoic acid (PNB) testing in Middlebrook 7H10 agar medium for the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). PNB-7H10 was compared with PNB-MGIT and BACTEC-NAP using 200 clinical mycobacterial isolates. PNB-7H10 showed 100% agreement with PNB-MGIT and BACTEC-NAP tests, and reduced the cost of PNB-MGIT test by 80%. PNB-7H10 agar is therefore an effective alternative to the costly PNB-MGIT and BACTEC-NAP tests, especially in resource-poor settings.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shakoor
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ahsan
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jabeen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raza
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hasan
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009579:Nitrobenzoates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D009579:Nitrobenzoates; D000362:Agar; C008629:4-nitrobenzoic acid