Evaluation of BACTEC Micro MGIT with Lowenstein Jensen Media for Detection of Mycobacteria in Clinically Suspected Patients of Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Tertiary Care Hospital at Mullana (Ambala)

Background and objectives: Tuberculosis continues to be an important public health problem in India and globally.Extra pulmonary mycobacterial infections are more often smear negative than pulmonary cases which makes the diagnosis difficult.With this in background, this study aimed at the isolation of Mycobacteria from clinical specimens of patients suspected of extra pulmonary tuberculosis using BACTEC Micro MGIT, Lowenstein Jensen (LJ) media and Direct acid fast bacilli smear examination.Methods-A total of 200 samples were processed for direct AFB smear examination, and culture on M960 and LJ media.Acid fast staining of the specimens was done using the Ziehl-Neelsen method.Results and Interpreation -Of the 24 positive specimens, the highest rate of Mycobacterial recovery was by MGIT (91.6%) as compared to LJ media (58.3%).From smear negative samples LJ and MGIT media detected 6.06 % and 10.10 % isolates respectively.For smear-positive specimens, the mean turnaround time was 8 days by MGIT whereas on LJ medium, it was 36 days.For smear-negative specimens, the same was 18 days for MGIT and 40 days for LJ medium.Conclusion-The MGIT system is a good system for, especially in the diagnosis of extra pulmonary samples.The MGIT system was found to be more sensitive in detecting mycobacterium in smearnegative samples.The MGIT system detected mycobacterium significantly earlier than the LJ medium.