The specificity of the humoral immune response to soluble mycobacterial antigens in tuberculosis.

A high proportion of patient with tuberculosis have been shown to produce significant levels of antibodies to antigens unique to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, antigens restricted to the slowly growing mycobacteria and antigens common to all species in the genus. About 20% of patients with this disease do not have significantly elevated levels of antibodies to any of these groups of antigens. Consequently, the availability of highly purified soluble antigens specific for M. tuberculosis would not permit more cases of tuberculosis to be diagnosed serologically.