In this study we evaluated the crystal violet decolorization assay (CVDA) for detection of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antituberculosis drugs. 53 isolates were tested in this study and 13 of them were multidrug resistant (MDR) isolates. The antibiotics concentrations were 2-0.06 mg/L for isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RIF) and were 16-0.25 mg/L for streptomycin (STM) and ethambutol (EMB). Crystal violet (CV-25 mg/L) was added into the microwells on the seventh day of incubation and incubation was continued until decolorization. Decolorization of CV was the predictor of bacterial growth. Overall agreements for four drugs were detected as 98.1%, and the average time was detected as 9.5 ± 0.89 day after inoculation. One isolate for INH and two isolates for STM were determined resistant in the reference method, but susceptible by the CVDA. One isolate was susceptible to EMB by the reference method, but resistant by the CVDA. All results were concordant for RIF. This study shows that CVDA is a rapid, reliable and suitable for determination of MIC values of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. And it can be used easily especially in countries with limited-sources.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate four rapid colourimetric methods, including the resazurin microtitre assay (REMA), malachite green decolourisation assay (MGDA), microplate nitrate reductase assay (MNRA) and crystal violet decolourisation assay (CVDA), for the rapid detection of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. Fifty Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were used in this study. Eighteen isolates were MDR, two isolates were only resistant to isoniazid (INH) and the remaining isolates were susceptible to both INH and rifampicin (RIF). INH and RIF were tested in 0.25 µg/mL and 0.5 µg/mL, respectively. The agar proportion method was used as a reference method. MNRA and REMA were performed with some modifications. MGDA and CVDA were performed as defined in the literature. The agreements of the MNRA for INH and RIF were 96% and 94%, respectively, while the agreement of the other assays for INH and RIF were 98%. In this study, while the specificities of the REMA, MGDA and CVDA were 100%, the specificity of the MNRA was lower than the others (93.3% for INH and 90.9% for RIF). In addition, while the sensitivity of the MNRA was 100%, the sensitivities of the others were lower than that of the MNRA (from 94.1-95%). The results were reported on the seventh-10th day of the incubation. All methods are reliable, easy to perform, inexpensive and easy to evaluate and do not require special equipment.