Genotypes and drug resistance pattern of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex among clinically diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Clinically diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) (CDPTB) patients account for a huge proportion of TB. However, little is known about the genetic diversity and drug resistance profile of Complex (MTBC) strains in this group of patients. Unmatched case-control study was conducted among 313 PTB patients to compare the genetic diversity of MTBC and their drug resistance profiles among CDPTB ( = 173) and bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB (BCPTB) ( = 140) patients. Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture, geneXpert and acid fast staining were performed on sputum specimen collected from both CDPTB and BCPTB patients. Spoligotyping, whole genome sequencing (WGS) and phenotypic drug resistance testing (DST) were done for a subset of LJ grown MTBC isolates. Data was analyzed by STATA version 17 software and a -value