"Monitoring the Therapy of Pulmonary Tuberculosis by Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay."

According to the authors' abstract of an article published in Journal of Infection, "Monthly clinical and microbiological parameters (by sputum smear, culture, and PCR assay), of 50 patients with documented pulmonary tuberculosis and on anti-tuberculosis therapy, were monitored over a period of 18 months. PCR converters (70%) who had PCR conversion before the sixth month of treatment did not have clinical or microbiological evidence of failure or relapse, while nine of 15 PCR persisters (30%) had clinical failure (7) and relapse (2). The PCR persisters were significantly associated with more underlying medical illnesses, high mean radiographic scores on the extent of disease involvement,...

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