High diagnostic yield of line probe assay as a point-of care test in a TB rural setting

Background Tuberculosis is the second leading cause of death due to infectious disease worldwide. Delay in bacilli isolation in culture, cumbersome susceptibility testing methods, lack of methods for differentiation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) from non tuberculous mycobacteria, are important issues which impinge on the WHO’s millennium goal of disease reduction by 2015. Traditional methods of TB detection and anti tB drug susceptibility assays are time consuming and with a steep rise in number of MDR tB cases the need of the hour is rapid diagnostic methods like direct drug susceptibility testing in liquid medium, molecular hybridization methods and RealTime PCR.