Value of immunodiagnostic techniques on diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

Serological diagnostic techniques and T-cell interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs)are main immunodiagnostic techniques for tuberculosis. Serological tests are simple and fast, however,they have low specificity and sensitivity in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Based on cellular immune responses, IGRAs are important breakthrough of immunodiagnostic techniques for tuberculosis. The value of IGRAs in the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection has been widely recognized. The diagnostic specificity is 89% in IGRAs, which is significantly higher than that in tuberculin test. However,peripheral blood monouclear cell IGRAs could not be used to differentiate active tuberculosis, latent infection and previous infection, so the poor specificity of diagnosis of active tuberculosis is the main problem. Tuberculosis local immune cell IGRAs has better specificity and sensitivity in the diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, so it is worth further study. Key words: Tuberculosis; Immunodiagnosis; T-cell interferon gamma release assays; Serodiagnosis