Evaluation of a rapid bacteriophage-based method for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical samples.

Rapid, sensitive and low-cost methods are needed urgently for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical samples, especially in developing countries. To this end, the clinical performance of FASTPlaqueTB(TM) (a bacteriophage-based method) has been studied in parallel with microscopy, standard microbiological culture and in-house IS6110-based PCR methods. A total of 64 samples, including 42 sputum samples and 22 urine samples, were tested in this study.