Diagnosis of tuberculosis: present and future.
Current methods used worldwide for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) are not markedly different from those used 50 years ago. The standard has been to demonstrate microbiologically the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in secretions and/or tissue from the patient. Improvements have been made that permit greater sensitivity for the examination of stained smears and for more rapid detection of growth of the organism using radiometric techniques. New methods for diagnosis that may well eliminate the need for smear and culture of specimens are under varying stages of development. These new methods are based on the detection of specific components of the organisms or on detection of specific antibodies produced by the patient. Some of these methods will require expensive and sophisticated equipment, and this will make them much less available in developing countries. The use of gene probes for diagnosis of TB is in use now on a limited scale. For the near future, we predict that nucleic acid techniques will be developed for use worldwide. These techniques will have a sensitivity and specificity never before achieved; they should be less expensive than standard methods, and the time required for analysis of a sample and the reporting of results will be reduced to 1 day.
Crawford
J T
JT
Medical Research Service, McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital, Little Rock, AR 72205.
Eisenach
K D
KD
Bates
J H
JH
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial