Evaluation of conventional molecular diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical specimens from Morocco

Tuberculosis is a major public health threat, annually affecting new individuals worldwide, especially those in developing countries. Rapid detection of the agent and effective treatment are two important factors in controlling this disease. The present study aimed to evaluate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a rapid and direct molecular method for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in 70 clinical specimens (62 sputum samples, six cerebrospinal fluids, and two biopsies) using heat shock protein (hsp65) as the gene target. Automated sequencing of the same gene was used for the identification of MTB to the species level. The sensitivity of PCR was 81.13%, with specificity of 88.24%; the positive and negative predictive values were 95.56% and 60%, respectively. Based on these results, the hsp65 gene sequence can be used to differentiate the members of MTB complex from non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM).