الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), is spread from person to person predominantly through an airborne route. For several decades smear microscopy and conventional culture techniques have been the mainstay of diagnostic testing for pulmonary tuberculosis. While smear microscopy has poor sensitivity and issues related to quality control, conventional solid culture techniques have the limitation of long turnaround time of several weeks and therefore suffer from slow diagnosis. Though advances in drug therapy have been limited, TB control has greatly benefited from the advent of newer diagnostic tests including use of liquid culture media and nucleic acid amplification tests such as line probe assay and Xpert MTB/RIF. Rapid diagnosis of TB significantly decreases the lag time in initiation of treatment, thereby reducing transmission rates.