de Almeida IN, et al. - The frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with the RD^Rio genotype was investigated in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In addition, researchers examined its relationship with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Among 172 susceptible and 63 MDR M. tuberculosis isolates, taken from pulmonary samples from patients diagnosed between January 2007 and December 2011, 122 (51.9%) isolates displayed the RD^Rio pattern, with 100 (42.5%) wild-type and 13 (5.5%) mixed pattern isolates, whereas 93 of the 122 RD^Rio positive samples had RD174 (76.3%). Among the isolates in this study, the Latin American – Mediterranean (LAM) family and the LAM9 lineage were most frequently identified. Sixty-three MDR isolates were identified; of these, 41 (65.1%) were RD^Rio and 28 (44.4%) RD174. Corroborating the few reports that have associated RD^Rio with MDR, this work suggests a statistically significant association of both deletions with MDR.