A molecular approach to identification and profiling of first-line-drug-resistant mycobacteria from sputum of pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Conventional and molecular techniques were applied to detect and characterize drug resistance of mycobacteria in the sputum samples of clinically confirmed tuberculosis. The sensitivities of mycobacterium detection by ZN staining, culture, multiplex PCR, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were 27.7%, 19.9%, 92.9%, and 95.7%, respectively, but all were 100% specific. The conventional and multiple-allele-specific PCR (MAS-PCR) methods enabled establishment of the drug resistance in 19.3% and 86.9% cases, respectively. We demonstrated that molecular techniques have potential in the accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis.