부산대학교 도서관

ABSTRACTSusceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosisis seriously limited by the time required to obtain results. We show that susceptibility testing of clinical isolates of M. tuberculosiscan be accomplished rapidly with acceptable accuracy by using flow cytometry. The susceptibilities of 35 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosisto various concentrations of isoniazid, rifampin, and ethambutol were tested by the agar proportion method and by flow cytometry. Agreement between the results from the two methods was 95, 92, and 83% for isoniazid, ethambutol, and rifampin, respectively. Only 11 discrepancies were detected among 155 total tests. The results of flow cytometric susceptibility tests were available within 24 h of inoculation of drug-containing medium, while the proportion method required 3 weeks to complete. The flow cytometric method is also simple to perform.