Isolation and Characterization of Mycobacterium from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Thanjavur, Tamilnadu

A total of 50 symptomatic patients (35 male and 15 female) suffering from various symptoms like chronic cough, fever and weight loss have undergone different standard tests such as Acid-fast staining (AFB), culture (Lowensteing-Jenesen) and biochemical examinations. 10 isolates (CCU-23, CCU-334, CCU-20, CCU-142, CCU-93, CCU-102, CCU-2, CCU-3, CCR-1 and CCR-4) were slow growers. Growth was scraped and DNA was isolated. It was observed that RFLP pattern of biochemically identified isolates of M. tuberculosis matched with the standard strain of M. tuberculosis (H37 Rv). This technique appears to be useful to distinguish growing M. tuberculosis and provides sufficient information to identify most clinically important mycobacterial species and sub-species.