Dissecting whole-genome sequencing-based online tools for predicting resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: can we use them for clinical decision guidance?

Whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based bioinformatics platforms for the rapid prediction of resistance will soon be implemented in the Tuberculosis (TB) laboratory, but their accuracy assessment still needs to be strengthened. Here, we fully-sequenced a total of 54 multidrug-resistant (MDR) and five susceptible TB strains and performed, for the first time, a simultaneous evaluation of the major four free online platforms (TB Profiler, PhyResSE, Mykrobe Predictor and TGS-TB).Overall, the sensitivity of resistance prediction ranged from 84.3% using Mykrobe predictor to 95.2% using TB profiler, while specificity was higher and homogeneous among platforms.

Source: Tuberculosis - March 27, 2018 Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Rita Macedo, Alexandra Nunes, Isabel Portugal, S ílvia Duarte, Luís Vieira, João Paulo Gomes Source Type: research