QMAC-DST for Rapid Detection of Drug Resistance in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients: A Multicenter Pre–Post Comparative Study

Abstract

Background/Objectives: This study explores the impact of QMAC-DST, a rapid, fully automated phenotypic drug susceptibility test (pDST), on the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) patients. Methods: This pre–post comparative study, respectively, included pulmonary TB patients who began TB treatment between 1 December 2020 and 31 October 2021 (pre-period; pDST using the Löwenstein–Jensen (LJ) DST (M-kit DST)) and between 1 November 2021 and 30 September 2022 (post-period; pDST using the QMAC-DST) in five university-affiliated tertiary care hospitals in South Korea. We compared the turnaround times (TATs) of pDSTs and the time to appropriate treatment for patients whose anti-TB drugs were changed based on these tests between the groups. All patients were permitted to use molecular DSTs (mDSTs). Results: A total of 182 patients (135 in the M-kit DST group and 47 in the QMAC-DST group) were included. The median TAT was 36 days for M-kit DST (interquartile range (IQR), 30–39) and 12 days for QMAC-DST (IQR, 9–15), with the latter being significantly shorter (p p Conclusions: QMAC-DST delivers pDST results more rapidly than LJ-DST, ensuring faster confirmation for the current treatment regimen.

Keywords

• drug susceptibility test
• QMAC-DST
• resistance
• tuberculosis