Pilot study of a rapid and minimally instrumented sputum sample preparation method for molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) enables rapid and sensitive diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB), which facilitates treatment and mitigates transmission. Nucleic acid extraction from sputum constitutes the greatest technical challenge in TB NAAT for near-patient settings. This report presents preliminary data for a semi-automated sample processing method, wherein sputum is disinfected and liquefied, followed by PureLyse(®) mechanical lysis and solid-phase nucleic acid extraction in a miniaturized, battery-operated bead blender.