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Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the great killers globally, but diagnostic testing is frustratingly bad. Microscopy for acid-fast organisms and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) culture are not very sensitive; sputum samples can be difficult to obtain and are of no help with identifying extrapulmonary TB. Some new tests don't distinguish Mtb from other mycobacteria, and many tests don't distinguish active from latent infections.
A multi-institutional team has created a blood test that employs nanoparticles coated with antibodies that recognize peptides specific for Mtb. The test has very high reproducibility. In a case-control study, the test had high sensitivity (92%) and specificity (100%) for distinguishing infected (and HIV-negative) fro…