Methods for Diagnosis of Human Pulmonary Tuberculosis (Mini-Review)

Worldwide, every year is described 9 million of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and this disease is responsible for 1.5 million deaths. The main causative agent of PTB is Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). The bacillus has a cell wall rich in lipids and shows very slow growth, which raises difficulties to the execution of cultivation methods. Although the cases and deaths are still high, progress is being made aiming to reduce the incidence and prevalence of PTB due to new methods of diagnosis and more efficient treatments. One of the main challenges for the control of PTB is the high proportion of false negative results and extended time for obtaining diagnostics, which contributes for the spreading of the disease. The aim of this review was to approach the main methods of laboratory diagnostics for active human pulmonary tuberculosis, focusing on bacteriological, immunological, molecular and imaging methods.