Sensitivity of amplicor mtb on direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in smear-negative specimens from outpatients in Rio de Janeiro

Anjos Filho, Luciano dosOelemann, Walter M. RBarreto, Clara E. NKritski, Afranio LineuFonseca, Leila de Souza

We evaluated the performance of the AMPLICOR MTB assay for detection of M. tuberculosis in clinical specimens obtained from 98 smear-negative tuberculous patients (43 with positive and 55 with negative culture results). The sensitivity of the AMPLICOR MTB was 44.9(per cent) (44/98) and that of culture was 43.8(per cent) (43/98). No significant difference was observed between the results obtained by AMPLICOR MTB and by culture. We conclude that amplification assays could be used for testing smear-negative specimens because a rapid diagnosis will benefit those patients.