Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA Detection

What it is for

Provides same-day presumptive tuberculosis diagnosis from sputum where smear microscopy is slow or insensitive, and detects rifampicin-resistance mutations (rpoB) to guide regimen choice before line-probe or sequencing results are available.

Limitations

A negative molecular result does not exclude TB in paucibacillary or HIV co-infected patients; culture remains the reference standard. Resistance detection is limited to the mutations the assay covers — phenotypic drug susceptibility testing is still required.

Also known as

• TB PCR
• tuberculosis molecular test
• MTB detection