Systematic review of new tests for tuberculosis
Jon Deeks with Jacq Dinnes (Southampton) and the TB diagnosis review group
Tuberculosis (TB) has recently re-emerged as a major public health concern, being one of the few infectious diseases with increasing disease rates in Western society. Not all people infected with the TB bacterium go on to develop clinical TB, and it is only those with clinical TB who spread the disease. TB control relies first on the identification and treatment of people with active disease, and second on identification of people with latent TB infection who are at risk of going on to develop disease.
Microscopy followed by culture has been the mainstay of detection of clinical TB, while the tuberculin skin test has been used for diagnosing latent TB. These tests have limitations in terms of sensitivity, specificity and practicality. Several new tests have been developed. These tests include rapid culture, PCR and PRA methods, mycobacteriophage-based methods, immune-based diagnosis, liquid chromatography, NAP tests, nucleic acid probes and sequencing, and antigen-based tests.
This review aims to assess the effectiveness of the new tests for diagnosing TB.
