Fluorescence microscopy for the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in Ethiopia

• Main Authors: Gemeda Abebe, Dossegnaw Aragaw, Mulualem Tadesse
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AOSIS 2020-09-01
• Series: African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
• Subjects: sputum smear-negative; light-emitting diode fluorescent microscopy; bleach pretreatment; ethiopia; health
• Online Access: https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/810
• ISSN: 2225-2002; 2225-2010

Background: Despite its low sensitivity, microscopy remains the main method for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in most laboratories in Ethiopia. Few studies have evaluated the performance of light-emitting diode fluorescent microscopy (LED-FM) in bleach-concentrated smear-negative sputum specimens. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of LED-FM for smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in Ethiopia. Methods: A total of 194 adult patients with a cough lasting for more than two weeks, and who had three direct smear-negative sputum tests for Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Ziehl-Neelsen light microscopy, were included. All direct Ziehl-Neelsen-stained smear-negative sputum samples were cultured and were also visualised by LED-FM. Smears for LED-FM were performed from bleach-concentrated sputum sediment. The diagnostic performance of the LED-FM was compared to the culture method (the reference standard). Results: Of the 194 smear-negative sputum specimens analysed, 28 (14.4%) were culture-positive and 21 (10.8%) were LED-FM-positive for M. tuberculosis. However, only 11 of the 21 (52.4%) LED-FM-positive patients had a confirmed tuberculosis diagnosis by culture. Light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (FM) had a sensitivity of 39.3% (95% confidence interval: 21.2–57.4) and specificity of 93.9% (95% confidence interval: 90.4–97.6). Ten LED-FM-positive specimens were culture-negative, and all of these specimens had scanty grading (1–19 bacilli per 40 fields on LED-FM). Conclusion: This study showed that implementation of LED-FM on bleach pre-treated and concentrated sputum can significantly improve the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis. However, all scanty grade, positive smears by LED-FM need to be confirmed by reference culture method.