THE DISEASE

Tuberculosis (commonly referred to TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints.

Tuberculosis is one of the most deadly and common major infectious diseases today, infecting two billion people or one third of the world’s population. Nine million new cases of the disease, resulting in two million deaths occur annually, mostly in developing countries.

The diagnosis of tuberculosis is largely based on conventional approaches, which rely on clinical features, results of microscopy and culture. Clinical features are not generally diagnostic and microscopy, while rapid, lacks sensitivity and specificity. Culture methods are time consuming (2-3 weeks to obtain results).

An important technical advance in TB diagnosis has been the development of nucleic acid amplification (NAA) assays which will allow direct detection of tubercle bacilli as well as other mycobacteria. PCR is most commonly used for this purpose.

Procedure...