BACKGROUND In several settings, women with suspected tuberculosis are less likely to test smear positive than are men. Submission of poor-quality sputum specimens by women might be one reason for the difference between the sexes. We did a pragmatic randomised controlled trial to assess the effect of sputum-submission instructions on female patients. METHODS 1494 women and 1561 men with suspec...

PURPOSE To evaluate the diagnostic utility and predictors for determinate results of an enzyme-linked immunospot assay using induced sputum cells (IS ELISPOT) for a rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). MATERIALS AND METHODS Subjects suspected of pulmonary TB who had either sputum acid fast bacilli smear-negative or not producing sputum spontaneously were prospectively enrolled. ELI...

BACKGROUND Clinical observations over a 12 year period have suggested a changing pattern of adult respiratory tuberculosis in patients from the Indian subcontinent in two districts of the United Kingdom with a high incidence of tuberculosis. METHODS Details of all patients for the period 1981-92 residing in the Newham and Blackburn districts aged 15 and over whose ethnic origin was from the I...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The pattern of clinical presentations of tuberculosis (TB) is reflected in the microbiological, radiological, and histological characteristics of the disease. However, coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) poses special diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. This study was aimed at assessing the clinical manifestations of TB in patients with or without HIV c...

The routine test for diagnosing malaria is still the thick blood smear, despite its known decreased sensitivity and specificity in situations of low parasite density and mixed infections. The polymerase chain reaction is increasingly being used for molecular detection and identification of Plasmodium species, due to its higher sensitivity and specificity. Nested PCR was performed on whole-blood...

Xpert MTB/RIF-generated cycle-threshold (C(T)) values have poor clinical utility as a rule-in test for smear positivity (cut-point ≤20.2; sensitivity 32.3%, specificity 97.1%) but moderately good rule-out value (cut-point >31.8; negative predictive value 80.0%). Thus, 20% of individuals with C(T) values >31.8 were erroneously ruled out as smear-negative. This group had a significantly lower spu...

we investigated the use of dna amplification by polymerase chain reaction (per) for detection of mycobacterium tuberculosis in 300 patients who were suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis and compared the results with culture results which were performed in parallel with pcr. two-thirds of each sample was processed for smear and culture by standard methods and one-third was prepared for dna...

BACKGROUND Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is the most common form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The cytomorphological features of lymph node smears have reduced specificity for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. The diagnosis of TBLN with direct smear microscopy lacks sensitivity due to the limited number of bacilli in lymph node aspirate. Therefore, we aimed to assess whether the concentration...

Objectives: This study was undertaken to see the role of AFB microscopy and culture for the diagnosis of extra pulmonary tuberculosis. Design and Setting: This descriptive study was carried out at PMRC TB Research Centre King Edward Medical University/Mayo Hospital Lahore. Subject and Methods: Symptomatic suspects of extra-pulmonary TB were asked to submit their respective samples for AFB smear...