Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Mycobacterial infections are typically diagnosed in the laboratory through the direct microscopy of stained smears and culture of the organism upon egg-based media. While microscopy is rapid, inexpensive, and simple to perform, it is rather insensitive and does not allow speciation of the mycobacteria. The culture of mycobacteria from clinical samples is far more sensitive and allows the biochemical identification of mycobacterial species. However, the major disadvantage of this latter approach is the slow growth rate of M. tuberculosis upon all culture media and the resulting delay in detection by culture. New techniques to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) are being developed which either demonstrate specific host responses to M. tuberculosis infection or detect the bacilli or some of its constituents. However, since many of these new technologies require expensive equipment and specialist training, it is unlikely that they will become widely established as routine techniques in developing countries. Biotec Laboratories Ltd. is developing a system for the rapid detection and determination of drug susceptibility for M. tuberculosis from decontaminated sputum samples. The FAST-Plaque TB test uses bacteriophage to reflect the presence of target bacteria. This approach, scheduled for launch in early 1998, can provide rapid microbiology in laboratories in developing countries without expensive instrumentation.
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PMID:New approach to laboratory diagnosis. 1234 74