Thin layer agar compared to BACTEC MGIT 960 for early detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

We compared the sensitivity and time to detection of growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the thin layer agar (TLA) compared to BACTEC MGIT960. The average time for growth of M. tuberculosis in TLA and BACTEC MGIT960 was 10.6 and 9.6 days, respectively. The sensitivity of detection of M. tuberculosis was 97.3% on TLA and 97% on BACTEC MGIT960 for smear positive samples. TLA showed comparable results to BACTEC MGIT960 and could be an alternative method for low-income countries.