Comparative Study of Solid Culture and Liquid Culture for the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Background: Tuberculosis is a highly infectious disease and has the highest burden with it. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in many countries is still dependent on microscopy. For developing countries with a large number of cases and financial constraints, evaluation of rapid and inexpensive diagnostic methods has great importance. Culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MtbC) is the accepted reference standard for confirmation of TB infection and is necessary for drug susceptibility testing (DST). There are several methods for culturing MtbC using solid and liquid media. Although solid media has been used for over 100 years, liquid culture media is increasingly being introduced in low and middle income countries (LMIC)