Abstract:

Objective To explore the application value of gene chip technology in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and the identification of mycobacterium. Methods A total of 1248 patients with suspected PTB whose sputum smears were tested positive for three consecutive times were collected in Infections Disease Hospital of Heilongjiang Province from January 2017 to December 2017. The 3-5 ml of early morning sputum specimens were collected from each patient, and the samples were tested by culturing with BACTEC MGIT 960 (MGIT 960) and gene chip technology, respectively. MGIT 960 culturing was used as reference method to analyze the detection efficiency of gene chip technology. Results Among 1248 sputum specimens, 98.08% (1224/1248) sputum specimens were positive by culture method with MGIT 960, and 97.11% (1212/1248) were positive by gene chip technology. The sensitivity, specificity, coincidence rate and Kappa value of the gene chip method were 98.94% (1211/1224), 95.83% (23/24), 98.88% (1234/1248), and 0.76, respectively, compared with the MGIT 960 culture method which was regarded as a standard. Among the 1212 positive patients by gene chip method, 60 cases (4.95%) were infected with non-tuberculosis mycobacterium (NTM), and 1152 cases (95.05%) were infected with MTB. Among the 60 patients infected with NTM, the most common strain was Mycobacterium intracellularis (43.33%, 26/60). Conclusion The results of gene chip technology have good consistency with the results of MGIT 960 culture method, which can quickly and accurately distinguish between Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and NTM, and can be used for future identification of mycobacterium.

Key words: Mycobacterium infections, Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Genes, Microchip analytical procedures, Diagnosis, Data interpretation, statistical