Mycobacteriology laboratory.

This review summarizes the most important features of different mycobacterial species, and addresses the issues of specimen collection and shipment, bacteriological diagnosis of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections, and drug susceptibility testing of different mycobacteria. Special emphasis is placed on the expected turnaround time for the various laboratory reports from different methods. The potential of new methods of today and tomorrow to expedite laboratory results are discussed.