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

Lemus D, Montoro E, Echemendía M, Martin A, Portaels F, Palomino JC

Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kouri, Autopista Novia del Mediodía Km 61/2, Apartado Postal 601, La Lisa, La Habana, Cuba.

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 %. 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.

Published 14 June 2006 in J Med Microbiol, 55: 861-3.
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