A Review on Immunological Diagnosis Methods of Tuberculosis Infection

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the world and this infection is a major public health challenge. TB control is largely dependent on the early diagnosis and managements of suspected cases. Today, for laboratory diagnosis of TB infection, several bacteriological and immunological methods such as sputum smear microscopy, sputum culture and tuberculin skin test are used. Although they have not been very successful in decreasing TB cases as expected. In recent decades, tuberculin skin test or Mantoux test has been used as a screening and diagnosing method; low specificity and sensitivity are main shortcoming of this method. In the recent years, in order to modifying mentioned defects, interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) have emerged as an immunodiagnostic tool to detect latent tuberculosis. In this review, we discuss the advantages of new immunologic tests in diagnosis of TB.