title: Pulmonary Tuberculosis Diagnosis: Where We Are?
abstract: In recent years, in spite of medical advancement, tuberculosis (TB) remains a worldwide health problem. Although many laboratory methods have been developed to expedite the diagnosis of TB, delays in diagnosis remain a major problem in the clinical practice. Because of the slow growth rate of the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, isolation, identification, and drug susceptibility testing of this organism and other clinically important mycobacteria can take several weeks or longer. During the past several years, many methods have been developed for direct detection, species identification, and drug susceptibility testing of TB. A good understanding of the effectiveness and practical limitations of these methods is important to improve diagnosis. This review summarizes the currently-used advances in nonmolecular and molecular diagnostics.
authors.affiliation: Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamed Ebrahimzadeh
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Leylabadlo
authors.affiliation: Drug Applied Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein Samadi
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kafil
authors.affiliation: Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yousefi
authors.affiliation: Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aghazadeh
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asgharzadeh
keywords: Diagnosis; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant