Ergonomic Diagnostic Tool based on Chip Mini RTPCR for Diagnosis of Pulmonary and Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis

• Main Authors: V. Mangayarkarasi, Sneka P., Sujith R., Jayaprakash
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology 2019-06-01
• Series: Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology
• Subjects: extrapulmonary; mycobacterium; pulmonary; rt-pcr; truenat
• Online Access: https://microbiologyjournal.org/ergonomic-diagnostic-tool-based-on-chip-mini-rt-pcr-for-diagnosis-of-pulmonary-and-extra-pulmonary-tuberculosis/
• ISSN: 0973-7510; 2581-690X

Diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) is a challenging problem with the currently available conventional methods such as microscopy for Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) and culture techniques.The diagnosis of Extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is still more challenging due to the low yield of bacilli in the clinical specimens. Recently, a chip based Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was introduced in India. This study was conducted for finding out the sensitivity and specificity of TrueNAT RT-PCR for the diagnosis of Pulmonary and EPTB at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Southern India. A total of 145 samples including both Pulmonary (80) and EPTB (65) were examined by Smear microscopy, culture on Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) medium and TruNat RT PCR. All the positive samples were confirmed by conventional PCR technique as well. Out of 80 Pulmonary samples such as sputum, bronchial wash and tracheal aspirate 41(51.25%) samples were positive in RT-PCR, 22 (27.5%) were positive in microscopy and 29 (36.25%) was positive for culture on LJ medium. Among the 65 EPTB samples such as pus, pleural fluid, Cerebro spinal fluid (CSF), ascitic fluid, Tissue, Peritoneal fluid, Pericardial fluid, Urine, synovial fluid, Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) 38 (58.46%) were positive in RT-PCR, 08 (12.30%) were positive in microscopy and 31(47.69%) were positive for culture on Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) medium. The sensitivity and specificity of TrueNat RT-PCR for the diagnosis of Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is 93.1% and 72.5 % and for EPTB is 96.77 %and 76.4 %, respectively. The newer diagnostic tool has a Turn Around Time (TAT) of less than 2 hours, can detect rifampicin resistance, longer shelf life, cost effective and can work from 2°C to 40°C. It is portable and comes with an inbuilt rechargeable battery which makes it a compatible equipment for any health care setup and out reach programs to detect and treat patients even in remote villages.