Diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis: multi-targeted loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay versus multiplex PCR

Aim: Diagnosis of osteoarticular tuberculosis (OATB) is quite challenging and there is an urgent need to design a prompt and precise diagnostic test. Methods: We developed a multi-targeted loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay using mpt64 (Rv1980c) and pstS1 (Rv0934) targets for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in OATB patients. Results: The sensitivities of 100 and 82.4% were obtained in confirmed (n = 10) and suspected (n = 57) OATB cases, respectively by multi-targeted LAMP with a specificity of 96.9% (n = 33). Moreover, the sensitivities attained by multi-targeted LAMP in total OATB cases were significantly higher (p < 0.05–0.01) than multiplex PCR ( mpt64 + pstS1) and GeneXpert assay. Conclusion: Our LAMP is simple, reliable and cost-effective method, which may develop into an attractive diagnostic kit for early detection of OATB cases.