Feasibility and acceptability of undertaking postmortem studies for tuberculosis medical research in a low income country.

Introduction: If we are to break new ground in difficult-to-treat or difficult-to-vaccinate diseases (such as HIV, malaria, or tuberculosis), we must have a better understanding of the immune system at the site of infection in humans. For tuberculosis (TB), the initial site of infection is the lungs, but obtaining lung tissues from subjects suffering from TB has been limited to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or sputum sampling, or surgical resection of diseased lung tissue.

Methods: We examined the feasibility of undertaking a postmortem study for human tuberculosis research at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.