Diagnostic value of mycobacteriophage based fast plaque technique for early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis

• Main Author: Servet Kayhan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Modestum Publishing LTD 2012-06-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical and Experimental Investigations
• Subjects: Mycobacteriophage; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; diagnostic test; pulmonary tuberculosis
• Online Access: http://www.jceionline.org/upload/sayi/12/JCEI-00316.pdf
• ISSN: 1309-8578; 1309-6621

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnosticperformance of FASTPlaqueTBTM (FPTB) test andto compare with mycobacterial Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ)culture and smear test.Materials and methods: Respiratory samples were obtainedfrom 60 patients with suspected tuberculosis and20 control patients who had any diagnosis other than tuberculosis.One sample of case with suspected tuberculosiswas excluded from the study due to contamination. Allspecimens were examined by smear, LJ culture and fastplaque test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Results: A total of 54 specimens of 59 patients with clinicallyand radiologic tuberculosis grew on LJ media andall the isolates were M. tuberculosis complex. M. tuberculosiswas isolated by LJ culture from 42 smear-positiveand 12 smear-negative specimens. Smear and LJ culturenegative five cases were diagnosed as tuberculosis withclinical and radiologic findings. Fast plaque method determinedM. tuberculosis in 36 (61%) specimens of 59 caseswith tuberculosis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictivevalue, negative predictive value and efficiency ofprediction were calculated as 61%, 100%, 100%, 46%and 0,70 respectively in all cases. We found the performanceof fast plaque test with a high (73,8%) sensitivityin smear-positive cases and low sensitivity (29,4%) insmear-negatives.Conclusion: Fast plaque assay is not a preferable diagnostictest to LJ culture or smear in M. Tuberculosis and Itmay be used for a rapid detection of pulmonary tuberculosis.J Clin Exp Invest 2012; 3(2): 189-193