Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problems worldwide and results in about 2 million deaths annually. This infection is caused by a group of closely related species and subspecies of intracellular pathogens called Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) including M. tuberculosis, M. bovis and M. bovis BCG.

While bacterial culturing is still the gold standard for TB diagnosis, Real-Time PCR is increasingly used as an alternative due to its rapid, sensitive and specific results. It also provides the highest sensitivity and widest dynamic range among other methods. In Real-Time PCR, application of fluorescent dye labeled probes allows detection of amplified product. Analysis of fluorescent kinetics also leads to quantification of the target sequence in the reaction without requiring post-amplification analysis, reducing the possibility of contamination with the PCR product.

TB RQ kit provides a ready-to-use Real-Time PCR system for detection and quantitation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA with Rotor-Gene (Qiagen) or StepOne (Applied Biosystems) machines. The kit also incorporates an Internal Control (IC) to identify possible DNA extraction failure or PCR inhibition or set up errors.