The laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis. Serodiagnosis

Dosage of antibodies for serodiagnosis of tuberculosis is not yet regularly performed because of the low sensitivity and specificity of the methods currently used, although these limitations have the low sensitivity and specificity of the methods currently used, although these limitations have been partially overcome by modern radioimmunological and immunoenzymatic techniques, and by mycobacterial antigen purification. The serodiagnosis should differ subjects with tuberculosis from those without disease and from those affected by micobacteriosis; distinguish between serum antibodies due to natural infection and serum antibodies due to BCG vaccination and allow to monitor anti-tuberculosis therapy. None of the methods currently used is able to obtain these results, so they cannot be considered a substitute for traditional diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, two potential fields of application can be outlined: the diagnosis of tuberculosis without bacteriological data and the study of tuberculosis immunological mechanisms.