“…Several nucleic acid amplification and nucleic acid hybridization techniques have been introduced, but they were found to be less sensitive than culture-based techniques and are often complicated due to the presence of inhibitors (Nancy et al 2000, Cheng et al 2005. Alternatively, common techniques, such as the acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smear and löwenstein-Jensen (lJ) cultures, have limitations, such as low sensitivity, and require prolonged incubation (typically weeks).…”