There have been attempts to use biological samples other than sputum for the diagnosis of TB. Urine is promising clinical specimen because of its availability, ease of access, processing and storage, and the low infection risk to healthcare workers du...
There have been attempts to use biological samples other than sputum for the diagnosis of TB. Urine is promising clinical specimen because of its availability, ease of access, processing and storage, and the low infection risk to healthcare workers during sample collection. In this study we evaluated the outcomes of urine diagnostics in hospitalized MDR, XDR pulmonary TB patients. In order to detect TB-specific transrenal DNA, 10 urine samples were collected during the study period, and quickly added to 1 ml of a stabilization buffer to a final concentration of 10 mM, in order to minimize degradation of soluble DNA by nucleases. DNA was extracted from 8ml of whole urine and eluted in 25ul with an automated system based on magnetic silica particle technology. We used droplet PCR, it might be an ideal alternative to conventional real-time PCR for microorganism detection. We aimed to assess the capacity of ddPCR for detecting low levels of circulating Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA target (known as IS6110). ddPCR was found to provide results in good agreement with the other methods tested and to be highly reproducible.In this study, the results show that ddPCR could be used to measure low levels of MTB DNA, and it has the potential to be used to diagnose pulmonary TB based on clinical samples. The application of the Tr-DNA test could provide a significant advance in the diagnosis of TB. The availability of new method using urine that is more convenient and accessible may greatly usefulness for individual hospitalized patients for monitoring their treatment process.