Diagnostic Modalities of Tuberculosis- Then and Now

Abstract

Tuberculosis is one of the most ancient diseases known to affect humans and according to WHO remains major cause of death after HIV/AIDS. It remains a global public health problem due to increasing number of undiagnosed and drug resistant cases. Early diagnosis and immediate initiation of treatment is crucial to prevent the extensive spread of this deadly disease. Nowadays advancements in molecular based test imparted better and rapid diagnosis of TB. Several commonly used methods to screen and diagnose TB are clinical, immunological, microscopy, radiography, and bacterial culture. Molecular diagnostic methods including loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), line probe assays (LPA), GeneXpert, whole genome sequencing (WGS) etc have been employed to diagnose and characterize TB. Here, we reviewed use of these currently available and other future promising diagnostic methods along with their sensitivity, specificity, advantage and disadvantage of each method. Although new diagnostic methods have been developed, they require extensive amount of studies to validate their confirmatory role in the diagnosis of TB. There is increased requirement for biomarker discovery, validation and translation into clinical tools. High-burden countries will need to improve their efficiency of health care delivery and ensure better uptake of new technologies.