Immunologic Diagnosis of Tuberculosis

Abstract
Evaluation of new vaccines against tuberculosis requires diagnostic tools for accurately identifying asymptomatic individuals infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and persons with active tuberculosis. This article discusses limitations of current methods for the immunologic diagnosis of latent infection and active disease and presents novel approaches to developing skin tests and serodiagnostic assays based on “cocktails” of multiple antigens of M. tuberculosis.