IsoScreen

IsoScreen is a urine test to monitor treatment adherence of patients with tuberculosis.

Isoniazid therapy is the mainline drug treatment for TB. The course of treatment is long and arduous, every day for 6-months or more, and the drugs are not without their side effects.

Many patients do not complete their course of treatment. Unfortunately, this non-compliance can lead to the recurrence of the disease, and in many cases the disease is resistant to the drugs previously used. This multi-drug resistant TB is a growing problem worldwide.

We have incorporated a test for isoniazid into SafeTube to produce a 5-minute test that turns blue/black if isoniazid metabolites are present in urine.

A recent audit of treatment compliance by patients attending a TB outpatient clinic showed that over 5% of patients were not taking their treatment correctly. The test therefore indicated which patients required extra monitoring or an alternative treatment regimen (Ann Clin Biochem 2004).