N Engl J Med 2011; 364:182-185. January 13, 2011
Boehme et al. (Sept. 9 issue)1 report encouraging results on the use of an automated molecular test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and resistance to rifampin (Xpert MTB/RIF). However, the population of patients with clinical tuberculosis who have negative cultures still poses a problem of interpretation, which was not discussed in the article.
Among study patients whose samples were culture-negative but who had symptoms of tuberculosis, 29.3% had positive results on the automated test; these patients made up 4.3% of the total number of automated test–positive patients.
Weblink here
