Comparison of conventional and molecular methods for diagnosing Tuberculosis in pulmonary non-sputum samples

Prasanna Lakshmi Kakarla, Anil Kumar Bilolikar, Gopal Reddy S, Rani P

Pdf Page Numbers :- 151-155

¹Department of Microbiology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Minister Road, Secunderabad-500003, Telangana, India

²Department of Molecular Biology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Minister Road, Secunderabad-500003, Telangana, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Prasanna Lakshmi Kakarla, Department of Microbiology, Department of Laboratory sciences, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Minister Road, Secunderabad–500003, Telangana, India. Mobile: 8332055939; Email: prasannakakarla380@gmail.com

Received 09 July 2016; Revised 24 August 2016; Accepted 30 August 2016; Published 05 September 2016

Citation: Kakarla PL, Bilolikar AK, Reddy GS, Rani P. Comparison of conventional and molecular methods for diagnosing Tuberculosis in pulmonary non-sputum samples. J Med Sci Res. 2016; 4(4):151-155. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2016/4-033

Copyright: © 2016 Kakarla PL, et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Introduction: One person dies of Tuberculosis every two minutes in India according to WHO report in 2014. Tuberculosis is a horrible scourge of mankind, especially so in case of developing countries like India with poor sanitation conditions. Tuberculosis can affect many other parts of the body apart from lungs. Many newer diagnostic modalities have become available for diagnosing tuberculosis.

Objectives: This study was taken up in order to compare conventional and one of the newer techniques, PCR for diagnosing Tuberculosis in non-sputum samples.

Material & methods: Non-sputum samples received during the period 1 July 2015 to 31 June 2016 for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were included. Samples comprised of Bronchial wash, Pus, Pleural fluid, Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, Ultra sound or CT guided fluid and Tissue of suspected Tuberculosis patients. Efficiency of smear microscopy and PCR were compared with the Gold standard culture. Results & Discussion: Though the specificity and negative predictive value of PCR are good, the sensitivity and positive predictive value are greatly different from conventional culture.

Conclusion: Inspite of its high sensitivity and specificity, cost is a constraint with PCR. In resourceful settings, PCR and culture used together would fetch faster and reliable results than any diagnostic test used alone.

Keywords: non-sputum samples; Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) technique; PCR; gold standard