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Advances in the diagnosis of tuberculosis
Author(s) -
LANGE Christoph,
MORI Toru
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
respirology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1440-1843
pISSN - 1323-7799
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1843.2009.01692.x
Subject(s) - medicine , tuberculosis , intensive care medicine , mycobacterium tuberculosis , sputum , tuberculosis diagnosis , active tuberculosis , radiological weapon , psychological intervention , surgery , pathology , psychiatry
Tuberculosis ranges among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A diagnostic approach to a patient with possible tuberculosis includes a detailed medical history and clinical examination as well as radiological, microbiological, immunological, molecular‐biological and histological investigations, where available. Recently, important advances have been achieved in these fields that have led to substantial improvements in the accuracy and the timing of the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Novel methods allow for a better identification of latently infected individuals who are at risk of developing active tuberculosis, they also offer the possibility for a rapid diagnosis of active tuberculosis in patients with negative sputum smears for acid‐fast bacilli and enable prompt identification of drug‐resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis directly from respiratory specimen with a high accuracy. In addition, promising methods that will further optimize the diagnosis of tuberculosis are under development. In the future, therapeutic interventions based on the results of novel diagnostic procedures can be made earlier leading to improvements in patient care.