Why are National Jewish Medical Centers test results different from CDCs results?
• It is not unusual to have differing drug susceptibility results from multiple specimens from the same patient. Reasons for differing results include • The TB bacteria in a sputum specimen may come from different parts of the lung or different lesions in the lung. • The TB bacteria in a sputum specimen may have different types of bacteria such as drug-susceptible bacteria (bacteria that can be killed by TB medicines) and drug-resistant (bacteria that cannot be killed by most TB medicines). • The amount of the different types of bacteria may vary over time and from specimen to specimen. • When drug susceptibility test results from different specimens from one patient are not the same, a treatment regimen is chosen that is most likely to be effective on the most predominant TB bacteria. • CDC’s laboratory functions as a national and supranational (i.e., for other countries) reference facility to provide access to drug susceptibility testing for second-line drugs. How is drug susceptibil
