Henry Ford Hospital has added Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) PCR testing in the microbiology laboratory as of 2/2019.
Two negative PCRs on sputum samples 8 hours apart can be used to take the patient out of airborne isolation (although it does not rule out infectious TB).
This would be far sooner than current protocol of three negative AFB smears.
CAVEATS:
- The patient must be in airborne isolation to qualify for testing.
- The lab wll need AFB cultures since they remain the gold standard for detecting TB infection.