Rapid Diagnosis Of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Impacts Expenditures Prior To Appropriate Treatment: A Performance And Diagnostic Cost Analysis

BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to describe the impact of the Genotype® MTBDRplus line probe assay (LPA) for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) on total costs in a high-burden setting in China. The second objective was to evaluate the performance of HAIN on smear-positive sputum and clinical isolates. METHODS: All definitive TB inpatients at the Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital between May 2012 and May 2017 were included in the study. Two sputum specimens were collected from each patient to conduct smear microscopy, conventional drug susceptibility testing (DST), and the HAIN test. Laboratory and cost data were collected from the electronic medical record system. RESULTS: A total of 1670 definitive TB patients were included in this study. Of these patients, 1307 (78.3%) had smear-positive/culture-positive tuberculosis, and the remaining 363 (21.7%) had smear-negative/culture-positive tuberculosis. The sensitivity and specificity of the HAIN test for RIF resistance was 94.8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 91.9–97.6%) and 98.8% (95% CI: 98.3–99.4%), respectively. For INH resistance, the sensitivity and specificity was 89.5% (95% CI: 85.7–93.2%) and 95.6% (95% CI: 94.5–96.7%), respectively. The mean time for detection of MDR-TB in smear-negative cases was determined to be 32 days by the HAIN test, which was significantly shorter than that by conventional DST (56 days). Similarly, the mean time for detection of MDR-TB by the HAIN test was significantly shorter than that by conventional DST in smear-positive cases (3 versus 53 days). In addition, by utilizing the HAIN test, the total health care cost decreased by 71.0% for smear-positive cases and 25.9% for smear-negative cases. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our data demonstrate that the HAIN test is an accurate rapid test for detecting both RIF and INH resistance in TB patients. The use of the HAIN test can decrease health care costs and reduce the detection time for MDR-TB patients in China, despite the increased costs for laboratory testing.