Diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in people who are at increased risk for the development of active disease is very important for the effective control of tuberculosis. There is no gold standard method for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection at the present time. Tuberculin skin test and interferon gamma releasing assays are used for the last 100 and 10 years, respectively, for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Both tests have advantages and disadvantages. Although the sensitivities of the tests are comparable, the specificity of the interferon gamma releasing assays in BCG vaccinated people is higher than that of tuberculin skin test as a result of using antigens specific to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in this test which are not found in BCG bovis strains. In this paper, the clinical applications of the present tests used in the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection and new diagnostic methods developed for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection were reviewed.