Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra: innovación en el diagnóstico de la tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is and infectious disease with a high mortality and is a great challenge for public health worldwide. Among the problems for its eradication, diagnosis represents a major challenge, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. The Xpert MTB/RIF is an automated molecular test; it yields a rapid diagnosis and screens for the presence of rifampin resistance,permitting an early and efficient treatment. However,it has a low sensitivity in patients with paucibacillarydisease, and false positives for rifampin resistance and TBin patients with past medical history of TB have beenreported. This is the reason why Xpert MTB/RIF Ultrawas developed, which has an improved sensitivity for thediagnosis of tuberculosis, especially in paucibacillary cases,and a decrease in false positives for rifampicin resistance; nowadays it is the most recommended molecular testby the World Health Ornanization (WHO), hoping toreduce the time to diagnosis and treatment. This review article analyzes the challenges of improving the diagnosis oftuberculosis, the characteristics and performance of XpertMTB/RIF and Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra for pulmonary andextrapulmonary forms and for the detection of rifampicin resistance.