Scope of Biochemical Markers in Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is one of the major causes of the mortality from single infectious agent worldwide. India has the highest number of TB cases in the world. It is the leading cause of death, because of its high mortality and morbidity because of the disease, is due to emergence of multidrug resistant TB strains, and the HIV infection which reactivates the latent TB making it more severe. Moreover, failure to diagnose TB early remains one of the primary hurdles in controlling of the disease. The disease is diagnosed generally by its symptoms, radiographic methods, and sputum smear microscopy and by cultivation of the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, which is considered as gold standard. Current advances in molecular biology and molecular epidemiology and a better understanding of drug resistance in TB have given a new horizon to its rapid diagnosis. However the cost effective techniques, and their requirement for sophisticated equipments & skilled personals have excluded their implementation on a routine basis especially in low income countries.