Microbiologia Medica (Dec 2008)

Rapid identification of mycobacterial species directly in clinical samples

  • Raffaella Rossi,
  • Fabio Mengoni,
  • Ilaria Sauzullo,
  • Miriam Lichtner,
  • Laura Scorzolini,
  • Fernanda Chiarini,
  • Vincenzo Vullo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4081/mm.2008.2561
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 4

Abstract

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Up to today, the prompt diagnosis of NTM infection has been impaired by the slow growth in culture media, which is an essential step for proper identification. The aim of our study was to evaluate the kit Genotype Mycobacterium CM/AS for the identification of NTM in clinical specimens. Four patients admitted to the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases of Sapienza University in Rome were included in the study.Three out of 4 patients were strongly suspected to have a NTM infection and one of them underwent treatment for M. tuberculosis infection without any substantial clinical improvement. After decontamination of the specimens, the extracted DNA was amplified in target sequences using PCR assay by increasing the number of cycles from 20 to 30. Subsequently the Genotype assay was performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Our results confirmed the presence of NTM in all patients: M. peregrinum in two patients, M. gordone and M. intracellulare in the others. The use of the Genotype Mycobacterium CM/AS directly from clinical specimens permits rapid diagnosis and enables clinicians to start an effective treatment.

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