Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis In M.M.I.M.S.R, Muallana Ambala: A Microbiological & Histopathological Study

Tuberculosis a contagious and airborne disease affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. The vast majority of tuberculosis deaths are in the developing world, so called a disease of poverty (1). Tuberculosis can involve any organ system in the body. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis comprises 10-50% of all tuberculosis in HIV negative patients and about 35-80% in HIV infected patients (2). Important cornerstone methods for the diagnosis of tuberculosis are AFB microscopy and conventional Lowenstein Jensen culture. Diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis still faces many challenges due to its wide spectrum of clinical presentation and paucibacillary nature(3). The main drawback of these traditional methods is their low sensitivity especially in the samples containing small number of organisms (4). Montoux test is used as an aid to the diagnosis but its value is limited in adults. However, it may be of use in children aged five years or below (5). Histopathology remains one of the important methods for diagnosis but depends upon the bacillary load of the specimen material (6). For prevention of spread of infection in the community and to hasten the administration of antimicrobial therapy, a sensitive and accurate detection of these organisms in the clinical specimen is required. Therefore clinical microbiological and histopathological confirmation plays a key role in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The present study correlates Zeihl Nelson staining , Lowenstein Jensen Abstract Clinical microbiological and histopathological confirmation plays a key role in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The present study correlates Zeihl Nelson staining , Lowenstein Jensen culture media, Montoux test and histopathology in the diagnostic yield of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.Result of current study shows out of total 255 samples, 24 (9.4 %.) showed the presence of mycobacteria by either of the following methods: LJ culture media, ZN staining, histopathology and montoux test.