Research led by scientists at Harvard Medical School reveals that when it comes to predicting response to treatment and risk of dying, molecular tests that detect resistance to a class of TB drugs known as fluoroquinolones may be as good and even superior to traditional drug-sensitivity tests conducted in lab cultures.
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Traditional drug-sensitivity tests—which involve exposing a bacterial strain to a series of drugs to determine which medications the bacterium responds to—can take up to eight weeks to yield results. By comparison, point-of-care molecular tests provide results within hours, expediting treatment decisions.
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“Our results should provide reassuring evidence that molecular tests, which are faster in detecting resistance mutations, are just as reliable, if not better, in predicting overall treatment outcome” [study lead investigator Maha Farhat, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School said]
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Carole Mitnick, study senior investigator and associate professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School [said] “Our findings also affirm the importance that patients with fluoroquinolone-resistant TB—whether it’s detected by molecular or culture-based tests—need drug regimens that reflect that diagnosis.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: TB: Genetic drug resistance tests as good in gauging treatment outcome, death risk as culture-based tests
