The detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in uncultured clinical specimens using the polymerase chain reaction and a non-radioactive DNA probe.

A Sal I-Hin dIII restriction fragment from Mycobacterium tuberculosis was found to hybridize specifically with genomic DNA from M. tuberculosis. Primers were designed from the sequence of this fragment and used to amplify uniquely M. tuberculosis-group DNA in a polymerase chain reaction. It is suggested that a combination of these primers and an acetylaminofluorene-labelled probe will prove to be a useful tool for the early diagnosis of tuberculous infections.