Ann Lab Med.  2015 May;35(3):356-361. 10.3343/alm.2015.35.3.356.

Comparison of AdvanSure TB/NTM PCR and COBAS TaqMan MTB PCR for Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Routine Clinical Practice

• Cho WH
• Won EJ
• Choi HJ
• Kee SJ
• Shin JH
• Ryang DW
• Suh SP

• KMID: 2363210
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2015.35.3.356

Abstract

The AdvanSure tuberculosis/non-tuberculous mycobacterium (TB/NTM) PCR (LG Life Science, Korea) and COBAS TaqMan Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) PCR (Roche Diagnostics, USA) are commonly used in clinical microbiology laboratories. We aimed to evaluate these two commercial real-time PCR assays for detection of MTB in a large set of clinical samples over a two-year period. AdvanSure TB/NTM PCR and COBAS TaqMan MTB PCR were performed on 9,119 (75.2%) and 3,010 (24.8%) of 12,129 (9,728 respiratory and 2,401 non-respiratory) MTB specimens, with 361 (4.0%) and 102 (3.4%) acid-fast bacilli (AFB)-positive results, respectively. In MTB culture, 788 (6.5%) MTB and 514 (4.2%) NTM were identified. The total sensitivity and specificity of the AdvanSure assay were 67.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.9-71.6) and 98.3% (95% CI, 98.0-98.6), while those of the COBAS TaqMan assay were 67.2% (95% CI, 60.0-73.8) and 98.4% (95% CI, 97.9-98.9), respectively. The sensitivities and specificities of the AdvanSure and COBAS TaqMan assays for AFB-positive and AFB-negative samples were comparable. Furthermore, the AdvanSure assay showed fewer invalid results compared with the COBAS TaqMan assay (5.0 vs. 20.4 invalid results/1,000 tests, P<0.001). AdvanSure assay represents a comparable yet more reliable method than COBAS TaqMan for the identification of mycobacteria in routine clinical microbiology.

Keyword

AdvanSure TB/NTM PCR; COBAS TaqMan MTB PCR; Mycobacterium tuberculosis

MeSH Terms

DNA, Bacterial/genetics/metabolism
Humans
Mycobacterium tuberculosis/*genetics/isolation & purification
Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
Republic of Korea
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary/diagnosis
DNA, Bacterial
Reagent Kits, Diagnostic

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