ABSTRACT
More than 60% of active tuberculosis(TB) patients are smear- and culture-negative, constituting a prime group in the prevention and control of TB in China. In the existing laboratory testing technologies, immunological diagnosis is more advantageous than etiological diagnosis in the detection of smear-and culture-negative TB. Serum antibody detection reagents are cheap,easy to operate and time-sav-ing,and have been widely used in China. However,these agents are not stable in sensitivity and specificity, and because of that their accuracy in the diagnosis of smear-and culture-negative TB is doubtful. In this re-view,we summarize some problems in the use of serum antibody detection among smear- and culture-nega-tive pulmonary TB patients and discuss possible methods to solve these problems expecting to provide some ideas for promoting its development,application and policy formulation.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the application value of T cell infected with Mybacterium tuberculosis assay in diagnosis of smear and culture negative pulmonary tuberculosis .Methods In total ,145 patients with smear and culture negative pulmonary tu‐berculosis and 45 patients with non‐tuberculosis lung disease were enrolled in the study .All patients received T cell infected with Mybacterium tuberculosis test and sensitivity ,specificity ,positive predicted value ,negative predicted value of testing for the diagno‐sis of smear and culture‐negative TB patients were calculated .Results The sensitivity of specificity T cell infected with Mybacteri‐um tuberculosis assay in diagnosis of smear and culture negative pulmonary tuberculosis was 85 .5% ,the specificity was 84 .4% , positive predicted value was 94 .7% ,negative predicted value was 64 .4% .No statistical significance in age‐dependent groups(P>0 .05) .Conclusion T cell infected with Mybacterium tuberculosis assay has high positive predicted value in diagnosis of smear and culture negative pulmonary tuberculosis and is suitable for clinical auxiliary diagnosis .