Assessment of whole genome sequencing technology applied to drugresistant tuberculosis diagnosis

Abstract

LB-2082-21 Background: The constant rise and global spreading of drug-resistant tuberculosis is a major threat to Global Health. Drug susceptibility testing (DST) is the reference method for the diagnosis of resistances in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, this technique has significant drawbacks such as the requirement of complex infrastructure and expertise, a long period to obtain results and low accuracy and reproducibility for certain first-line drugs. In recent years, Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has emerged as a fast and reliable tool to predict the drug susceptibility profile of the bacteria. Methods: We have performed a retrospective study of 735 isolates belonging to the Valencia Region (Spain) to assess the performance of WGS resistance prediction in a low burden setting. We compared our bioinformatics prediction with the phenotypic DST data to obtain the sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, we re-tested the clinical isolates with discordant DST-WGS results using the REMA assay.