Molecular diagnosis of atypical mycobacterial infections

摘要

The present invention provides methods for diagnosing mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT) infections in patients comprising amplifying the internal transcribed spacer sequence (ITSS) of 16S-23S rDNA of MOTT with primers that amplify MOTT but not Mycobacteria Tuberculosis (MTB). The present invention also provides a method for differentiating between MOTT and MTB infections comprising amplifying MOTT with primers that amplify MOTT but not MTB; amplifying MTB with primers that amplify MTB but not MOTT; and detecting approximately 130 base pair product indicative of MOTT and approximately 180 base pair product indicative of MTB.