Introduction: One person dies of Tuberculosis every two minutes in India according to WHO report in 2014. Tuberculosis is a horrible scourge of mankind, especially so in case of developing countries like India with poor sanitation conditions. Tuberculosis can affect many other parts of the body apart from lungs. Many newer diagnostic modalities have become available for diagnosing tuberculosis. Objectives: This study was taken up in order to compare conventional and one of the newer techniques, PCR for diagnosing Tuberculosis in non-sputum samples. Material & methods: Non-sputum samples received during the period 1 July 2015 to 31 June 2016 for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were included. Samples comprised of Bronchial wash, Pus, Pleural fluid, Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, Ultra sound or CT guided fluid and Tissue of suspected Tuberculosis patients. Efficiency of smear microscopy and PCR were compared with the Gold standard culture. Results & Discussion: Though the specificity and negative predictive value of PCR are good, the sensitivity and positive predictive value are greatly different from conventional culture. Conclusion: Inspite of its high sensitivity and specificity, cost is a constraint with PCR. In resourceful settings, PCR and culture used together would fetch faster and reliable results than any diagnostic test used alone. Keywords: non-sputum samples; Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) technique; PCR; gold standard

Introduction: Enterococci cause a multitude of infections and emergence of vancomycin resistance is of special concern, as it is the primary alternative drug to penicillin for treating Enterococcal infections. Objectives: The present study was taken up to know the species predominance, resistance pattern and various phenotypes of vancomycin resistant Enterococci in a tertiary care hospital in south India. Material & Methods: The Data collected from the department of Microbiology at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Secunderabad from January 2012 to December 2015 was retrospectively analysed. 226 Enterococci were speciated, antibiograms were analyzed and phenotyping of VRE was done based on standard guidelines. Results & discussion: The predominant species was found to be E. faecalis (51.3%) followed by E. faecium (43.3%), E. gallinarum (2.2%), E. durans (1.32%), E. casseliflavus (0.88%) and E. raffinosus (0.88). E. faecalis showed less resistance (30.39%) to antimicrobials than E. faecium (50.64%). The resistance pattern was less in out-patient samples when compared to in-patient samples. Vancomycin resistant Enterococci were 13(5.75%), all isolated from inpatients. Among the 13 isolates, 6(46.15%) were VanA, 4(30.76%) were VanB and 3(23.07%) were VanC phenotypes. VanC phenotype was observed in E. casseliflavus and E. gallinarum due to intrinsic resistance. Conclusion: The species predominance of E. faecalis and E. faecium reflects the change in recent decade. Drug resistance pattern and phenotyping is correlating with other studies, VanA being the commonest. Monitoring for vancomycin resistant Enterococci is critical in hospital infection control and for effective treatment. Keywords: phenotyping; antibiogram; vancomycin-resistant Enterococci; infection control

Background: Multi-drug resistant gram negative bacteria (MDR GNB) have become a major health challenge worldwide. Colistin has an excellent bactericidal activity against these MDR GNB. However, Colistin resistance has been reported globally.