Evaluation of Advansure TB/NTM Real Time PCR Kit for Detection of Mycobacteria in Sputum Specimens Gülnur Tarhan 1 *, Hülya Şimşek 2 and Ismail Ceyhan 3 1 Faculty of Medicine, Departmenf of Medical Microbiology, Turkey 2 Faculty of Medicine, Departmenf of Medical Microbiology, Turkey 3 Faculty of Medicine, Departmenf of Medical Microbiology, Turkey Introduction Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) is still one of the most wide-spread and serious infectious diseases all over the world. Despite successful tre- atment and control measures, approximately 10 million people are affected by tuberculosis each year. In addition, AIDS, cancer, intravenous drug addiction and so on [1,2]. Other myco- bacterial infections, which are found as saprophytes, are increasing day by day due to immu- nosuppressive causes. Over 160 species that have not been found in the Mycobacterium tuber- culosis complex have been reported, which are called non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) or mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT) [3,4]. The most common species causing disease is called Mycobacterium avium complex. The next most common are Mycobacteriu m abscessus complex and Mycobacterium kansasii [5]. The incidence of tuberculosis caused by NTM species is not much common, although observed in some African regions [6,7]. In- fections caused by NTMs tend to increase gradually due to the above mentioned causes of immunosuppression. Some studies have indicated an increase in the frequency of NTM isola- tion from respiratory specimens in worldwide [8-11]. Due to the different treatment proce- dures and duration, early diagnosis and identfication of MTBC and NTM is the most impor- tant stage before starting treatment. Primary diagnosis of tuberculosis is made by history, chest X - ray, smear microscopy, PPD or gamma interferon release test. Smear microscopy is the simplest and cheapest method known. However, the sensitivity of the test is low. This test does not distinguish between MTBC and NTM. The detection of MTBC in sputum culture is considered the gold standard in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The detection of MTBC in sputum culture is considered the gold standard in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, a Crimson Publishers Wings to the Research Research Article *Corresponding author: Gülnur Tarhan, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Microbiology, Turkey Submission: November 20, 2019 Published: July 17, 2020 Volume 4 - Issue 1 How to cite this article: Gülnur Tarhan, Hülya Şimşek, Ismail Ceyhan. Evaluation of Advansure TB/NTM Real Time PCR Kit for Detection of Mycobacteria in Sputum Specimens. Cohesive J Microbiol Infect Dis. 4(1). CJMI. 000577. 2020. DOI: 10.31031/CJMI.2020.04.000577 Copyright@ Gülnur Tarhan. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. ISSN: 2578-0190 1 Cohesive Journal of Microbiology & Infectious Disease Abstract Real time PCR is a widely used for molecular diagnosis of tuberculosis in routine diagnosis laboratory. There are many commercially avaliable system. The sensitivity of the system varies according to DNA extraction from the sample and target specific primers and probes and commercial systems. In this study, the sensitivity and specificity of AdvanSure TB/NTM real time PCR kit were evaluated for detecting mycobacteria in smear positive and negative sputum specimens of 35 active pulmonary tuberculosis patients. All specimens were corrected using EZN staining, solid (Löwenstein Jensen) and liquid culture (MGIT). Culture and clinical findings were used as gold standards in the evaluation of all PCR results. Overall true positivity was found 25 ( 71.42%). When smear negative samples were evaluated together with culture results, only 3 patients were found positive by PCR test in 10 samples (30%). Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Non-tuberculous mycobacterium; AdvanSure TB/NTM; real- time PCR