M. tuberculosis Molecular Diagnosis: A Review on Techniques

  • Sara Macente Cesumar
  • Fernando Henrique das Mercês Ribeiro Cesumar

Abstract

Tuberculosis is the most serious contagious infectious disease in developing countries, with an average of three million obits in the world, infecting 8.8 million people annually. This disease attacks people who are apparently healthy and is extremely serious among immunosuppressed people. The definitive tuberculosis diagnosis is done through the microscopy for acid-fast bacilli and Lowenstein-Jensen culture, followed by a biochemical battery of tests to identify the species that caused the infection. However, these techniques present low sensibility and specificity and it takes a long time to get access to the results. The fast development and the variety of new molecular techniques available provide several options for an exact and fast infectious disease diagnosis. This is particularly the situation for tuberculosis. Therefore, the clinic application of detection and amplification of specific Mycobacterium tuberculosis nucleotide sequences for routine diagnosis is important and needs to be discussed. The role of two laboratory techniques for the direct diagnosis of tuberculosis will be focused – PCR and LCR –, comparing them to verify their efficacy on the laboratorial routine.

Author Biographies

Sara Macente, Cesumar
Mestranda no Programa de Biociências Aplicadas à Farmácia na Universidade Estadual de Maringá - Uem. E-mail: sara_mascente@hotmail.com
Fernando Henrique das Mercês Ribeiro, Cesumar
Coordenador do curso de Biomedicina do Centro Universitário de Maringá – CESUMAR. E-mail: fernandoribeiro@cesumar.br
Published
2009-08-12
Section
Artigos de Revisão