Insight into diagnosis of female genital tuberculosis

Female genital tuberculosis (TB) is a common form of extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) with varied clinical presentations, i.e. infertility, pelvic pain, and menstrual irregularities. Diagnosis of female genital TB is challenging predominantly due to paucibacillary nature of specimens and inconclusive results obtained by most of the routine laboratory tests.

This review has briefly summarized the epidemiology, clinical features, and transmission of female genital TB. Commonly used laboratory tests include bacteriological examination (smear/culture), tuberculin skin testing, interferon-γ release assays, imaging, laparoscopy/hysteroscopy, and histopathological/cytological observations. Furthermore, utility of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs), like loop-mediated isothermal amplification, PCR, multiplex-PCR, nested PCR, real-time PCR, and GeneXpert® could significantly improve the detection of female genital TB.

Currently, there is no single test available for the efficient diagnosis of female genital TB, rather a combination of tests is being employed, which yields moderate diagnostic accuracy. The latest modalities developed for diagnosing pulmonary TB and other clinical EPTB forms, i.e. aptamer-linked immobilized sorbent assay, immuno-PCR (I-PCR), analysis of circulating cell-free DNA by NAATs, and identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis biomarkers within extracellular vesicles of bodily fluids by I-PCR/nanoparticle-based I-PCR, may also be exploited to further improve the diagnosis of female genital TB.