Nitrate reductase assay for detection of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: simple and inexpensive method for low-resource laboratories / s. t

ABSTRACT

The nitrate reductase assay (NRA) was used as an alternative method for detection of resistance to the first-line antituberculous drugs isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and streptomycin. A total of 320 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were studied and the results compared with the proportion method (PM) on Löwenstein–Jensen medium. The mean time to obtain results was 10 days and the overall agreement between the NRA and PM was 98,8 percent. The NRA was easy to perform and represents a useful tool for rapid and accurate determination of drug-resistant M tuberculosis strains in low-resource countries(AU)