Table 3.

Summarizing technical and operational pros and cons of TB-MBLA versus culture.

	Pros	Cons	Reference
Technically	Culture: available and used in clinical settings compared to TB-MBLA with regular formal skills	TB-MBLA: mostly used in clinical trial settings, and it requires more expertise with training to conduct the test.	8,19
Operationally	TB-MBLA: rapidly quantifies viable M. tb, reproducible and may be appropriate in treatment monitoring and drug efficacy	Culture: methods are time-exhausting and usually have a risk of contamination TB-MBLA: has a higher operational cost	19,22,23,26,27

TB-MBLA: tuberculosis molecular bacterial load assay.