Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Tuberculosis Using Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR)

Choi, Joon Sun; Park, Yang Il

Abstract

Recent development in the polymerase chain reaction( PCR) technology has brought an extraordinary opportunity for the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical specimens for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. This study was initiated to compare the PCR results with those obtained by culture on Ogawa medium. A total of 18 urine samples from patients suspected having tuberculosis were tested by PCR using the primer: P1(5'-AGC-ACG-GCG-ATT-TGG-AGT-CG-3')andP2 (5'-ATC-GTT-TTC-GGC-GGT-ATC-TG-3'). Of 5 culture positive samples, 3 showed the 320 bp DNA products in PCR and 2 were negative. Besides, 3 of 13 culture negative samples also showed positive results in PCR. In conclusion, the PCR easily detected M.tuberculosis in smear-positive samples. The PCR could detect the presence of M.tuberculosis when the samples were culture negative. Therefore, the PCR was probably more sensitive than culture. Because of the extreme sensitivity of PCR, one would expect to be able to detect organism that are present in low numbers and those that are nonviable. However, the PCR method could miss the culture proved M.tuberculosis. The PCR method looks promising for the rapid and specific laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis.