The value of tuberculin skin testing in the diagnosis of active tuberculosis remains uncertain. Interpretation of tuberculin tests would be easier if the tuberculin test profiles in different communities were accurately known. We reviewed 468 Mantoux test reactions in patients coming to Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia with suspected tuberculosis. Eighty six percent of patients with active tu...

Periorificial cutaneous tuberculosis, or tuberculosis cutis orificialis, accounts for approximately 2% of cases of tuberculosis of the skin.1 It results from the auto-inoculation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into the periorificial oropharyngeal, anal, or genital skin or mucosa from a pulmonary, intestinal, or genitourinary focus, respectively.2,3 The definitive diagnosis is made by the isolati...

Dear Editors, Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem causing significant morbidity and mortality in individuals worldwide. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis has become an increasingly important issue, particularly among immune-compromised patients (1). According to the National Tuberculosis Surveillance System, in the USA, the prevalence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis was reported to incr...

Clofazimine, a member of the riminophenazine class, is one of the few antibiotics that are still active against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). However, the clinical utility of this agent is limited by its undesirable physicochemical properties and skin pigmentation potential. With the goal of maintaining potent antituberculosis activity while improving physico...

Screening for latent tuberculosis infection is mandatory before starting anti-tumour necrosis factor treatments, but its diagnosis still poses a challenge. While studies performed in developed countries have demonstrated superior performance of T-cell based interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) compared with the tuberculin skin test, there is a debate about whether this holds true in tuberculosis e...

T HE TUBERCULIN TEST IS THE MOST effective means for detecting tuberculous infection, and hence is an essential tool in ultimate eradication of the disease. In clinical practice it has been generally accepted that a positive tuberculin skin reaction indicates the possibility of tuberculosis, whereas a negative reaction, with few exceptions, rules out a tuberculous infection. Since the advent of...

An easy-to-use tuberculosis skin test is developed with chitin microneedles that deliver purified protein derivative at the correct skin depth and result in a positive test in BCG-immunized guinea pigs.

Bovine tuberculosis is an important zoonotic disease transmitted by direct contact, respiratory pathway, ingestion of unpasteurised milk and milk product, raw or undercooked meat. Tuberculosis can be difficult to diagnose based only on the clinical signs. Tuberculosis is usually diagnosed in the field with the tuberculin skin test. Sputum and other body fluids may be collected for microbiologic...