Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
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Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. · May 2011
Molecular detection of mutations associated with first- and second-line drug resistance compared with conventional drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The emergence of multi- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis is a significant impediment to the control of this disease because treatment becomes more complex and costly. Reliable and timely drug susceptibility testing is critical to ensure that patients receive effective treatment and become noninfectious. Molecular methods can provide accurate and rapid drug susceptibility results. ⋯ The values for the second-line drugs were also calculated. The size and scope of this study, in numbers of loci and isolates examined, and the phenotypic diversity of those isolates support the use of DNA sequencing to detect drug resistance in the M. tuberculosis complex. Further, the results can be used to design diagnostic tests utilizing other mutation detection technologies.