Paradigm for diagnosing mycobacterial disease: direct detection and differentiation of <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> complex and non-tuberculous mycobacteria in clinical specimens using multiplex real-time PCR

Abstract

Thus, the assay can correctly differentiate between MTBC and NTM isolates in clinical specimens and would be a useful tool for the rapid differentiation of tuberculosis and NTM disease, despite its limited sensitivity for the diagnosis of NTM disease.