Molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis: a new primer design

Background: Nucleic acid based detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has the potential to improve the analysis of the tuberculosis epidemiology and patient care by increasing the specificity and sensitivity of diagnosis. Patients and methods: Fifty suspected cases were screened for M. tuberculosis by using a new primer sequence and comparing its results with the primer (IS6110) most widely used for tuberculosis diagnosis. Results: The mean age of cases was 33.6±14.3 years. Twenty one cases (42%) were positive for M. tuberculosis. Maximum positivity was found in sputum (10/19) followed by menstrual blood (4/8), blood (5/15), ascitic fluid (1/2), and pleural fluid (1/5). Conclusion: The new designed primer was reproducible and in complete concordance with the PCR-results obtained by the standard method using IS 6110 insertion sequence in all 50 cases in which both methods were used.