Urine biomarkers of pulmonary tuberculosis

Introduction: Sputum-based tuberculosis diagnosis does not address the needs of certain categories of patients. Active development of a noninvasive urine-based diagnosis could provide an alternative approach. We reviewed publications covering more than 30 urine biomarkers proposed as significant for TB diagnosis. Analytical approaches were heterogeneous in design and methods; few studies on diagnostic outcome prediction described a formal specificity and sensitivity analysis.

Areas covered: This review describes studies of non-sputum diagnostic approaches of pulmonary TB based on urine using specific TB biomarkers. The search was performed until December 2021, using terms [Tuberculosis] + [urine] + [biomarkers] in PubMed and Cochrane databases. Publications concerning LAM urine diagnostics were excluded as they have been described elsewhere.

Expert opinion: Microbiological culture of sputum is considered to be the 'gold standard' diagnostic for pulmonary TB but the methodology is slow due to the slow growth of the TB bacteria. Urine provides a large volume of sample. Investigators have evaluated urine for either TB pathogen biomarkers or host biomarkers with some success as the review demonstrates. Detection sensitivity remains a significant problem. In future, combination of host and pathogen biomarkers could increase the sensitivity and specificity of TB diagnosis.