Comparison of “TB Concentration & Transport” kit versus other commercially available transport kits
| Product | Manufacturer | Material transported | Assessed downstream applications | Advantages | Limitations | Cost per sample |
| TB Concentration & Transport kit (used in present study) | Advanced Microdevices (mdi), Ambala, India | Dried sputum on filter | NAATs (LPA (present study), PCR, Sanger sequencing [6]) | Spill proof, ambient-temperature transport, bio-safe | Field testing is pending | INR 100/USD 1.36 |
| PrimeStore Molecular Transport medium | Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics, San Antonia, TX, USA | Liquid sputum in tube | NAATs (Xpert [23], LPA [24], RT-PCR [25], NGS [26–29]), transcriptome analysis [30] | Bio-safe | Risk of sample spillage | INR 300/USD 4.10 |
| FTA card (recently discontinued) | Whatman, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Pittsburgh, PA, USA | Spotted sputum on filter | NAATs (LPA, PCR [31, 32]) | Spill proof, ambient-temperature transport | Not bio-safe | INR 165/USD 2.25 |
| GenoCard | Hain Lifescience, GmbH, Nehran, Germany | Spotted sputum on filter | NAATs (LPA, PCR [31, 32]) | Spill proof, ambient-temperature transport | Not bio-safe | Not available for sale in India |
NAATs: nucleic acid amplification tests; LPA: ine probe assay; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; RT-PCR: real-time PCR; NGS: next-generation sequencing.