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J. Clin. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/JCM.00083-08
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Rapid and Inexpensive Detection of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis with the Nitrate Reductase Assay using Liquid Medium and Applied directly to Sputum Samples

Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobactéries, BP 817 Cotonou, Bénin; Mycobacteriology Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp 2000, Belgium; Médecins Sans Frontières, 75011 Paris, France; Immunology Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp 2000, Belgium

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: affolabi_dissou{at}yahoo.fr.

	Abstract

For a rapid and low-cost detection of multidrug resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we applied the nitrate reductase assay (NRA) using a liquid medium directly to sputum samples. A total of 179 sputum samples were analyzed by the NRA and results were compared to those obtained by the indirect proportion method (IPM) as standard reference. Out of 144 specimens for which comparable results were available, only one discrepant result was obtained: MDR by NRA but susceptible by the IPM. In total 56% of the results were obtained in 10 days by the NRA.

NRA performed in liquid medium is rapid and inexpensive and can be easily implemented in low-income countries.