Tuberculosis diagnosis - an overview to the conventional diagnostic methodology and need for nanodiagnosis

The burden of tuberculosis is high in developing countries, where diagnosing latent TB, drug resistant TB, HIV coinfected Mycobacterium tuberculosis and for children remains still a challenge. Different conventional methods employed in diagnosing MTB lags in rapid and accurate diagnosis and there is no stand-alone test for diagnosing pathogenic Mycobacterium species in all the affected patients. Advent of nanotechnology has given fruitful results in diagnosing TB early and rapidly within hours. Arrival of nanotechnology in detecting pathogenic organism has speeded the sensitivity and specificity of the test. Optimisation of clinical results will give a point of care testing for diagnosing TB. This article reviews the various conventional methods available for TB diagnosis and highlights the need of nanotechnology in diagnosing TB.