A comparison of four sputum pre-extraction preparation methods for identifying and characterising Mycobacterium tuberculosis using GCxGC-TOFMS metabolomics

► A metabolomics approach to evaluate and compare 4 sputum pre-extraction methods ► Simple ethanol homogenisation of sputum prior to compound extraction ► Sensitive, repeatable GC based sputum analysis of TB disease markers ► Potential applications to characterising and diagnosing pulmonary diseases