Gene Xpert in diagnosis of female genital tuberculosis: an upcoming modality

Female genital tuberculosis (FGTB) poses a great challenge for treating clinicians in terms of diagnosis and treatment in a woman of reproductive age. It causes significant morbidity or short and long term sequelae, especially infertility for the affected women.The disease often remains silent or may present with non-specific symptomatology. As a result, the prevalence of genital tuberculosis is largely underestimated. Incidence of patient's with FGTB in infertility varies from 3% to 16% in India. A high degree of suspicion aided by intensive investigations is important in the diagnosis of the disease. Any method that is used to diagnose GTB should be highly sensitive to diagnose the disease reliably in its early stage, so that treatment may improve the prospects of cure before the tubes are damaged beyond recovery. In recent years, Gene Xpert MTB/RIF technique has evolved as a useful and rapid technique for the diagnosis of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB).