Rapid Point‐of‐Care Diagnostic Tests for Tuberculosis

Point-of-care (POC) testing for tuberculosis (TB) encompasses testing of people admitted to hospital, testing of people attending a peripheral clinic, or testing people in a community setting or at home. This chapter includes discussion on the diagnostic technologies that are suitable for use in these contexts and appraises the evidence around their use in POC testing programs. Direct observation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis organisms by microscopy remains the primary diagnostic method for TB in much of the world. Limitations of microscopy include the inability to discriminate between M. tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria, to determine the viability of organisms and to detect drug resistance. Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra has been developed as a next generation assay to overcome some of the limitations of the original Xpert MTB/RIF test. Line probe assays are rapid molecular diagnostic tests that can detect M. tuberculosis and drug resistance.