FLICKR, NIAIDDrug-resistant tuberculosis continues to evolve. Three new rapid and accurate tests for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) may reduce the time it takes to identify the most sweeping form of drug resistance in TB to under a week, according to MedPage Today.
“Our findings suggest these three tests could provide a quicker way to identify patients who need alternative treatment regimens,” University of California, Davis, professor Antonino Catanzaro, who presented the study results at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress in Barcelona earlier this week (September 8), said in a press release. “This is very important and could potentially save lives as well as help to curb the rise of drug-resistant TB.”
Researchers tested the three methods on more than 1,000 tuberculosis patients in South Africa, Moldova, and India. They compared the results to those obtained through the traditional Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) test, which takes a median of 25 days to produce results.
One new method, called the Line Probe Assay (LPA), detects common mutations ...
