Diagnosis of tuberculosis with Xpert® MTB/RIF test in the eastern region of Cuba

Abstract

Introduction: tuberculosis infection affects the world despite years of study and technological advances in its diagnosis. The Xpert® MTB/RIF test allows, to a large extent, the identification of Koch bacillus in any pathological sample, and does so with high sensitivity, specificity and speed compared to other methods.

Objective: to diagnose tuberculosis with the Xpert® MTB/RIF test.

Method: a cross-sectional study was carried out on 46 analyzed samples (n 46) from the eastern provinces of Cuba with the Xpert® MTB/RIF test, between April and September 2023, by the Centro Provincial de Higiene, Epidemiología y Microbiología de Holguín (Provincial Center of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology of Holguín). The variables studied were: province of origin, age, sex, type of sample, risk factors, test result and resistance to rifampicin.

Results: Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo were the provinces that reported the highest number of cases, with 14 cases each (30.4%). The males had the highest incidence, 33 cases (71.7%), regardless of the province. The age group of 25 to 34 years was the one with the highest prevalence, with 26.1%. The most affected risk groups were: smokers (37.0%), prisoners (32.6%), adults over 60 years of age (26.6%) and alcoholics (23.9%).

Conclusions: the introduction of GeneXpert in tuberculosis diagnosis is very effective, due to its high sensitivity and specificity in relation to traditional studies, such as smear microscopy and culture, in addition to the speed in obtaining the result. It also reports on resistance to rifampicin, attributable to the rpoβ gene, which is timely at a moment when multidrug resistance is increasing rapidly.