Abstract
assay for detecting mycobacteria and differentiating MTBC fromBackground: During recent years, the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) and nontuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) infections have increased, mainly because of several factors such as the AIDS epidemic. Rapid and accurate identification to species level is essential for the control and management of infections caused by Mybacteriun tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and /or NTM. Aims: The aims of this study were to evaluate of Speed-oligo Direct Mycobacterium tuberculosis assay and Speed-oligo mycobacteria assays, for rapid detection and differentiation of nineteen different species of NTM from clinical specimens. Methods: This study was conducted from January to June 2014 in the TB reference laboratory at the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Tripoli- Libya. A total of 2433 specimens were routinely processed for direct microscope examination and cultured on (Middle brook 7H9) media using the BACTEC™ MGIT™ 960 system, 457 specimens were assessed by Speed-oligo techniques. Results: From 337 positive culture results by MGIT 960 culture system, 331 (98%) specimens were positive and 6 (2%) were negative by SO-DMT. 295 specimens were identified as MBTC and 36 were identified as mycobacteria genus. Ten strains were identified to species level and the rest as genus level by SO-mycobacteria assay. Compared to positive culture, the sensitivity of SO-DMT assay was 98% (88& for MTBC and 10% for NTM). While specificity of SO-DMT assay for positive specimen was 90%, and the predictive value positive (PVP) and the predictive value negative (PVN) respectively was (99%), (75%). Conclusion: The SO-DMT and SO-Mycobacteria assays appear to be a fast and easy NTM in clinical specimens