Our Laboratory

Liquid and solid cultures are used as definitive diagnosis of MTBC and to distinguish it from other Mycobacterial species. DST technique is used to test for resistance of TB bacteria to certain drugs.

At Thyrocare, we are performing liquid culture by MGIT 960 and drug  susceptibility testing for 13 drugs with critical concentrations recommended by WHO.

This is a rapid molecular diagnostic technique with high sensitivity for TB diagnosis in sputum and other body fluids. This test uses DNA amplification for detection of M. tuberculosis.

This is one of the latest techniques in the field of TB diagnostics. The need for fast and accurate results is ever increasing for TB diagnosis and it is also important to determine drug resistance; GeneXpert MTB/RIF comes as an ideal solution for high sensitivity and specificity. This technology helps in detecting simultaneously M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and rifampin resistance .

The GeneXpert MTB/RIF test is a cartridge based nucleic acid amplification assay (CB-NAAT) which uses real time-PCR for detection of an MTB-specific region of rpoB gene. It detects mutations associated with rifampicin resistance.

Multi-drug resistance TB poses a potential threat to TB control due to its treatment challenges. Line probe assay is a novel technology for rapid detection of anti-TB drug resistance, in first line and second line drugs. This assay involves extraction of M. tuberculosis DNA from clinical specimens and subjecting it to PCR for the amplification of the resistance determining regions of the gene using biotinylated primers. After amplification, the labelled PCR products are hybridized to specialized probes that are immobilized on a strip. The hybrids fixed on the strips are detected by colorimetric development, detecting the presence of MTBC and mutant genes for resistance.