| Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of adult deaths
among infectious agents. One of the genetic fingerprinting techniques
to study the epidemiology of TB is variable number tandem repeat
(VNTR). The purpose of this study was to determine the diversity of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from patients in Azerbaijan, Iran by
exact tandem repeats (ETR)-VNTR method.
Methods: We used the ETR-VNTR method to analyze the genotypes of
M. tuberculosis isolates. Forty-seven isolates were collected from pulmonary
and extra pulmonary Tuberculosis patients associated with epidemiological
data such as human immunodeficiency virus, anti-TB drugs use,
cigarette smoking, diabetesmellitus, lung cancer, contact with TB patients,
Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine use, cough, housekeeping, fever, and
other risk factors from April 2013 to February 2015 in Tabriz Research
Center of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Three loci ETR-A, ETR-B,
and ETR-C of VNTR patterns were studied. The patients' data were
checked to determine the relationships between the epidemiological data
and M. tuberculosis diversities.
Results: Among the 47 isolates, 45 separate ETR-VNTR patterns consist
of 9 clusters, 24 nonclusters (unique patterns) were found. No locus was
observed in 2 samples. Diabetes and close household contacts were identified
as important risk factors for TB in our subjects with unique patterns.
Conclusions: Thirty-three distinct patterns were distinguished. In the
case of respiratory symptoms in patientswith diabetes and close household
contact patients, TB can be considered as the important differential diagnosis
with unique patterns. |