Work

Getting to the point in point-of-care diagnostics for tuberculosis

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to affect over 10 million people per year worldwide. Despite advances in diagnosis, smear microscopy insufficiently detects pulmonary disease, with test result reporting taking longer than a day. While urine assays to detect the lipopolysaccharide lipoarabinomannan (LAM), present in mycobacterial cell walls, can provide results within minutes, the currently available assay has low sensitivity and its application is limited to patients with HIV suspected of having TB. In this issue of the JCI, Broger and Nicol et al. investigated 3 rapid urine tests in 372 ambulatory HIV-negative individuals suspected of having TB in South Africa and Peru. FujiLAM emerged as a rapid test to confirm TB diagnosis in the HIV-seronegative population. This study shows that FujiLAM has considerable potential to reshape the TB diagnostics landscape, making diagnosis and treatment in one office visit a reality for TB.

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation

DOI: 10.1172/jci142497

Authors: Elisa H. Ignatius, Keira A. Cohen, William R. Bishai

Institutions: Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Language: English

Topic: Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze