Introduction: TUBERCULOSIS is one of the oldest diseases of human. Before application of the molecular methods, because of the long duration of diagnostic- microbiologic procedures (culture and biochemical tests), the diagnosis and beginning of the therapy required experience and clinical intelligence. The diagnostic microscopic assessment methods of the smear and culture of the specimens have their own limitations, one of which is the slow growth of mycobacteria (4-8 weeks) in the culture media.Nevertheless, achievement to the more rapid diagnostic procedures is the main aim in this regard. From the beginning of the last decade, PCR and other more rapid diagnostic assays for the diagnosis of the infections due to Mycobacterium TUBERCULOSIS have been used. Objective: Since no laboratory diagnostic procedure has been known as the alternative to the culture, this study has been done for determination of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the PCR test in comparison to the culture in this center.Materials and Methods: In this study, 169 specimens from the patients with positive smears were cultured on the Lowenstein- Jensen media and after subculturing and related biochemical tests, the results obtained were compared with PCR test results (with IS 6110 target and Dra, Drb primers).Results: Obtained data showed that from 169 smear positive cases, there were 150 positive cultures and after doing biochemical tests, 86 cases were detected as Mycobacterium TUBERCULOSIS. According to these results, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the PCR test in this center were 91.86%, 96.87%, 97.53% and 89.85% respectively. Conclusion: Concomitant use of PCR with culture and biochemical tests is recommended.

Background: Mycobacterium bovine, as the etiology of bovine TB, involves human in some cases and with Mycobacterium TUBERCULOSIS are regarded as global health problems. The aim of this study was to extract and compare protein profile of these strains in order to achieve effective biomarkers for diagnosis and the vaccine components.Materials and methods: First, the clinical samples were cultured on Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium by the N-acetyl-L-cysteine-sodium hydroxide method and the biochemical tests and antibiotic susceptibility were used.Colonies were grown in the Middlebrook 7H9 medium and, upon harvesting the new colonies, secretory and membrane proteins were extracted by sonication and ammonium sulfate and alcohol precipitation. Concentration was determined by Bradford method and finally the comparison was made through one dimensional electrophoresis.Results: The major discrepancy between two strains of Mycobacterium TUBERCULOSIS and Mycobacterium bovis was 45 and 60 KDa bands as well as the zone between 14 and 45 KDa bands of secretory proteins, in the banding separation membrane proteins.Conclusion: Discrepancy in the protein bands of sensitive strains and Mycobacterium bovis seems to be used as an effective protein marker or even a biomarker in distinguishing the sensitive and bovis strains; also similarities can be used for immunization purposes.

TUBERCULOSIS (TB) is one of the main single infectious agents, which causes death worldwide. It is estimated that 95% of more than eight million new cases of TB and 99% of two million deaths each year occur in middleand low-income countries (1). The risk of death in patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and TB is twice more than those with HIV. TUBERCULOSIS is responsible for 25% of all avoidable deaths in countries with limited resources (2).

The incidence of TUBERCULOSIS is high and extrapulmonary TUBERCULOSIS is seen more frequently, the thyroid TUBERCULOSIS is rare. Thyroid TUBERCULOSIS is presented as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis or abscess formation. This condition should therefore be recognized whenever goiter is being treated, because it has an entirely different treatment. The aim of this report is to present thyroid TUBERCULOSIS in order to gain a better understanding of its clinical characteristic, diagnosis and treatment we present 9 cases of thyroid TUBERCULOSIS since 1995-2006 from north of Iran. They comprised 5 patients with thyroiditis, 2 cases with abscess formation and 2 with thyroid nodules. All patients were diagnosed using Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) and treated by repeated surgery and antiTUBERCULOSIS drugs. It is concluded that TUBERCULOSIS of thyroid should be kept in mind while treating diseases of the thyroid such as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis, thyrotoxicosis especially in communities with high prevalence of TUBERCULOSIS. The diagnosis of thyroid TUBERCULOSIS is facilitated by FNA and its treatment is achieved by simple surgery as well as anti-TUBERCULOSIS therapy.

The first case of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TUBERCULOSIS (TB) was reported in 1993 in New York City and the next year the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global TB emergency (1, 2). Two decades later, in 2010, WHO estimated that 650,000 cases of MDR TB have been reported worldwide (3). This was not the end of the explosive process, and estimation of WHO for 2015 was more than 1.3 million people in 27 countries (2). Unfortunately, the world confronted more complications during the 2000s. Reports of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR) and totally drug-resistant TB (TDR) were published between 2003 and 2006 (2, 4).