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Review
. 2018 May 25:10:4.
doi: 10.1186/s41479-018-0049-2. eCollection 2018.

Rapid molecular assays for detection of tuberculosis

Rkia Eddabra  1 , Hassan Ait Benhassou  2
Affiliations
Review

Rapid molecular assays for detection of tuberculosis

Rkia Eddabra et al. Pneumonia (Nathan). .

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that remains an important public health problem at the global level. It is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality, due to the emergence of antibiotic resistant Mycobacterium strains and HIV co-infection. Over the past decade, important progress has been made for better control of the disease. While microscopy and culture continue to be indispensible for laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis, the range of several molecular diagnostic tests, including the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) and whole-genome sequencing (WGS), have expanded tremendously. They are becoming more accessible not only for detection and identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in clinical specimens, but now extend to diagnosing multi-drug resistant strains. Molecular diagnostic tests provide timely results useful for high-quality patient care, low contamination risk, and ease of performance and speed. This review focuses on the current diagnostic tests in use, including emerging technologies used for detection of tuberculosis in clinical specimens. The sensitivity and specificity of these tests have also been taken into consideration.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Drug resistance; M. Tuberculosis; Nucleic acid amplification tests; Sensitivity; Specificity; Whole-genome sequencing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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