Laboratory diagnosis of mycobacterial infections

This paper reviews the recent US history of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and discusses the emergence of drug-resistant strains. The paper continues with brief discussions of the clinical presentation of tuberculosis, tuberculosis in the pediatric population, and nontuberculous pulmonary disease. We discuss laboratory techniques that will rapidly identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis and provide susceptibility test results. The advances and limitations of currently available diagnostic techniques are presented. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the current strengths and limitations of molecular diagnosis of disease and resistance.