Tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay Reveals Early Delayed Bacterial Killing in Patients With Relapse

Funding: this work was supported by several funding agencies. The PanACEA MAMS study was funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP1); Grant No. IP.2007.32011.013, IP.2007.32011.012, and IP.2007.32011.011 as well as by the German Ministry of Education and Research (01KA0901). This analysis was funded by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF); grant no. 02.702. Bacterial killing in patients with tuberculosis (TB) relapse was compared to that in patients achieving cure, measured by TB molecular bacterial load assay (TB-MBLA) or mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) time to positivity (TTP). TB-MBLA in 4 relapsed patients was significantly different compared to 132 cured patients after 2 weeks of treatment; MGIT TTP showed a significant difference from week 8. Publisher PDF