Performance of Tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay Compared to Alere TB-LAM in Urine of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients with HIV Co-Infections

oleh: Daniel Adon Mapamba, Elingarami Sauli, Julieth Lalashowi, Joram Buza, Joseph John, Zawadi Mwaisango, Peter Tarmo, Issa Sabi, Andrea Rachow, Nyanda Elias Ntinginya, Bariki Mtafya

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-02-01

Deskripsi

Alternative tools are needed to improve the detection of <i>M. tuberculosis</i> (<i>M. tb</i>) in HIV co-infections. We evaluated the utility of Tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay (TB-MBLA) compared to lipoarabinomannan (LAM) to detect <i>M. tb</i> in urine. Sputum Xpert MTB/RIF-positive patients were consented to provide urine at baseline, weeks 2, 8, 16, and 24 of treatment for TB-MBLA, culture, and LAM. Results were compared with sputum cultures and microscopy. Initial <i>M. tb.</i> H37Rv spiking experiments were performed to validate the tests. A total of 63 urine samples from 47 patients were analyzed. The median age (IQR) was 38 (30–41) years; 25 (53.2%) were male, 3 (6.5%) had urine for all visits, 45 (95.7%) were HIV positive, of whom 18 (40%) had CD4 cell counts below 200 cells/µL, and 33 (73.3%) were on ART at enrollment. Overall urine LAM positivity was 14.3% compared to 4.8% with TB-MBLA. Culture and microscopy of their sputum counterparts were positive in 20.6% and 12.7% of patients, respectively. Of the three patients with urine and sputum at baseline, one (33.33%) had urine TB-MBLA and LAM positive compared to 100% with sputum MGIT culture positive. Spearman’s rank correction coefficient (r) between TB-MBLA and MGIT was −0.85 and 0.89 with a solid culture, <i>p</i> > 0.05. TB-MBLA has the promising potential to improve <i>M. tb</i> detection in urine of HIV-co-infected patients and complement current TB diagnostics.