Abstract
BACKGROUND: Incidence of mycobacterial infections has been increasing. However, diagnosis and treatment of mycobacterial infections can be difficult. The aim of this study was to investigate high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of the mycolic acids for rapid identification and dendrogram cluster analysis of mycobacterium species. METHODS: Clinical specimens received for mycobacterial culture and antimicrobial susceptibility test were processed by standard laboratory protocols. Positive cultures were analyzed with HPLC method. Mycolic acid analysis with HPLC was used for diagnosis of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections. These reports were compared with Sherlock Library mycobacterial species, and the similarity index was analyzed. This value was formed by a software in multidimensional space that was the calculation of the average distance between the nearest library profile and unknown profile. RESULTS: The ninety-two samples were identified as M. tuberculosis. (similarity index between 0.593 and 0.994). One of the other strains was identified as M. avium intracellulare (strain No. 82) (SI = 0.906); one of them was identified as M. interjectum (strain no. 89) (SI = 0.644). Total 94 samples were identified, and dendrogram was applied to these samples. Profile A (10.6%), profile B (59.6%), profile C (11.7%), profile D (3.2%), and other profiles as single different profiles were identified. Rates for each as 1% (89, 94, 1, 82, 26, 42, 32, 41, 100, 43, 47, 44, 40, 35). CONCLUSION: High-performance liquid chromatography is a useful, rapid, reliable, and practical method for diagnosis of mycobacterium species.