ABSTRACT
The paper summarizes the results of studies of the activity of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in biological fluids (including that during tuberculin tests) as a tool for the differential diagnosis of different forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis, such as pleuritis, synovitis, meningitis, tuberculosis of female genitals and peripheral lymph nodes, and uveitis. The threshold for the activity of ADA or the magnitude of its increase in antigenic stimulation, which provides the optimum ratio of the sensitivity to specificity of the tests and their maximum diagnostic efficiency, are given. The optimization of diagnosis of tuberculous synovitis is shown to facilitate the study of ADA activity concomitantly with the determination of the level of antituberculosis antibodies. The tests under discussion are economically sound and yield results in several hours and, in case of a provocative test, in 3 days.
