Canadian Multicenter Laboratory Study for Standardized Second-Line Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The purpose of this study was to establish a standardized protocol for second-line antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using the Bactec MGIT 960 system in Canadian laboratories. Four Canadian public health laboratories compared the susceptibility testing results of 9 second-line antimicrobials between the Bactec 460 and Bactec MGIT 960 systems. Based on the data generated, we have established that the Bactec MGIT 960 system provides results comparable to those obtained with the previous Bactec 460 method. The critical concentrations established for the testing of the antimicrobials used are as follows: amikacin, 1 mu g/ml; capreomycin, 2.5 mu g/ml; ethionamide, 5 mu g/ml; kanamycin, 2.5 mu g/ml; linezolid, 1 mu g/ml; moxifloxacin, 0.25 mu g/ml; ofloxacin, 2 mu g/ml; p-aminosalicylic acid, 4 mu g/ml; rifabutin, 0.5 mu g/ml.