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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Aug 1997, 1996-2002, Vol 35, No. 8
V Ausina, F Gamboa, E Gazapo, JM Manterola, J Lonca, L Matas, JR Manzano, C Rodrigo, PJ Cardona and E Padilla
Five hundred twenty processed respiratory specimens from 326 patients
received for the diagnosis of tuberculosis or other mycobacterial
infections were tested by means of the LCx Mycobacterium tuberculosis Assay
from Abbott Laboratories, which uses ligase chain reaction technology for
the direct detection of M. tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens.
The results of the LCx M. tuberculosis Assay were compared with the results
of culture and staining techniques. After a combination of culture results
and the patient's clinical data, a total of 195 specimens were collected
from 110 patients who were positively diagnosed as having pulmonary
tuberculosis. Twenty-three of these 195 specimens which corresponded to 10
patients with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and anti-TB
treatment ranging from 1 to 6 months were culture negative. The other 172
specimens were culture positive for M. tuberculosis. With an overall
positivity rate of 37.5% (195 of 520 specimens), the sensitivity,
specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 90.8, 100,
100, and 94.7%, respectively, for the LCx M. tuberculosis Assay; 88.2, 100,
100, and 93.4%, respectively, for culture; and 82.6, 92, 72.9, and 97.6%,
respectively, for acid-fast staining. For 161 specimens (82.6%) from
patients smear positive for the disease and 34 specimens (17.4%) from
patients smear negative for the disease, the sensitivity values for the LCx
M. tuberculosis Assay were 98.8 and 53%, respectively. There were no
statistically significant differences in the sensitivities and
specificities between the LCx M. tuberculosis Assay and culture (P >
0.05). Conclusively, the LCx M. tuberculosis Assay has proved to have an
acceptable sensitivity and a high specificity in detecting M. tuberculosis
and has the potential of reducing the diagnosis time to an 8-h working day.
Copyright © 1997 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Evaluation of the semiautomated Abbott LCx Mycobacterium tuberculosis assay for direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in respiratory specimens
Servicio de Microbiologia, Hospital Universitario Germans Trias i Pujol, and Departamento de Genetica y Microbiologia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. VAUSINA@NS.HUGTIP.SCS.ES
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