Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a threat to the world with nearly 1.7 million deaths in 2009. No new effective anti-TB drugs have been discovered in the last four decades and TB strains have become increasingly resistant to the existing drugs, resulting in multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB. In the absence of new drugs, currently the focus is on definitive new age molecular diagnostics of drug susceptible as well as MDR and XDR TB. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to developing such new age diagnostics. These tests are expected to replace the outdated smear microscopy and culture methods that result in delayed and insensitive diagnostics, thereby impairing TB control programs. Furthermore, the high rate of association of HIV with TB renders smear microscopy ineffective. Promising new diagnostic technologies like the Xpert-MTB Rif assays have been endorsed by the WHO recently. However, search is still on for a “one-size-fits-all” technology that can reliably replace smear microscopy and culture techniques without prohibitively increasing cost or operational complexity.

We invite investigators to submit original research as well as review articles on new diagnostic approaches of tuberculosis which has the potential to enable faster, more sensitive and specific diagnosis and are expected to have a positive impact on health care and TB control systems of the disease endemic countries. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Development and testing of novel diagnostic techniques for both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis
• Identification of new diagnostic biomarkers for rapid, specific, and sensitive identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• Development of novel serodiagnostic strategies for pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis
• Development of tuberculosis diagnostic modalities which show increased sensitivity in HIV positive settings
• Identification of novel gene mutations for molecular drug susceptibility testing for MDR and XDR tuberculosis and developing rapid assays using the same
• New diagnostic technologies as surveillance tools in diseased population and effect on TB control programs if any
• Studies on the effect of new diagnostic technologies on patient treatment outcome and impact on TB control programs

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/trt/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: