ABSTRACT
A prospective study was undertaken on suspected lymph node TB (LNTB) patients, to evaluate the diagnostic utility of mycobacterial culture of fine needle aspirate (FNA), in comparison with the cytological examination and acid fast staining. Eighty percent of 157 aspirates studied were positive by cytological examination; 18% by ZN smear and 45% were positive by culture. Twelve aspirates which were negative by cytological features yielded positive mycobacterial cultures; four out of these were from HIV positive patients. Our observations suggest that supplementing FNA cytology with mycobacterial culture would increase the sensitivity of diagnosing LNTB; in addition to giving a highly specific diagnosis.
Subject(s)
Biopsy, Fine-Needle , HIV Infections/complications , Humans , Mycobacterium/isolation & purification , Prospective Studies , Sensitivity and Specificity , Tuberculosis, Lymph Node/diagnosisABSTRACT
This prospective study evaluated the non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) cases of lymphadenitis. A total of 76 isolates of mycobacteria were obtained from 200 lymph node aspirates suspected of tuberculosis, 74 of which were Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one was Mycobacterium fortuitum and one Mycobacterium kansasii. These results highlight the importance of NTM in HIV-negative patients as a case of lymphadenitis, and indicates the re-emergence of NTM as potential lymph node pathogens in this part of the country. Further studies on a larger scale are needed to delineate the association between NTM infections in HIV positive and negative subjects.