Martin Jones

TL;DR: The MTB/RIF test provided sensitive detection of tuberculosis and rifampin resistance directly from untreated sputum in less than 2 hours with minimal hands-on time.

TL;DR: The first analysis of the Cepheid Gene Xpert System's MTB/RIF assay is developed and performed, an integrated hands-free sputum-processing and real-time PCR system with rapid on-demand, near-patient technology, to simultaneously detect M. tuberculosis and rifampin resistance.

TL;DR: The first studies of analytic sensitivity, analytic specificity, and dynamic range for the new Xpert MTB/RIF assay, a nucleic acid amplification-based diagnostic system that detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampin (RIF) resistance in under 2 h are performed.

TL;DR: The first demonstration of the design features and operational characteristics of an improved Xpert Ultra assay is shown, which should significantly improve TB detection, especially in patients with paucibacillary disease, and provide more-reliable detection of RIF-R.

TL;DR: Xpert MTB/RIF quantitation offers a new, standardized approach to measuring bacterial burden in the sputum of patients with tuberculosis, and Comparisons between the grade of the acid-fast bacilli smear and XpertMTB/ RIF quantitative data across study sites enabled us to identify a site outlier in microscopy.