Recent figures show that tuberculosis (TB) is advancing and killing more than 
two million people annually, yet no breakthrough in rapid diagnostics is in 
sight. Volatile metabolites of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) may provide just 
that. It is well established that MTB produces nicotinic acid in vitro. We have 
converted the free acid into methyl nicotinate and detected statistically 
significant differences in the breath of smear positive patients compared with 
healthy (smear negative) subjects.