The tuberculin skin test (TST) is popular because it is an inexpensive and relatively easy test for determining TB status of an individual. The TST has been around for approximately 100 years and is the method used by most practitioners.
Method
The Mantoux TST method is the most popular. This skin test appraises the delayed hypersensitivity of the skin reaction to the PPD (antigenic mixture of proteins). Recall that the purified protein derivative (PPD) is the solution injected into the forearm during a tuberculin skin test. PPD is made from batched human strains of M. tuberculosis grown on a protein-free synthetic medium and inactivated.
