Performance of a rapid strip test for the serologic diagnosis of latent tuberculosis in children

Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research : JCDR
Songsri KasempimolpornVisith Sitprija

Abstract

The serodiagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) present a high variability in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Data on patients with latent TB infection (LTBI) and children in high prevalence settings are still limited. The present study aimed to evaluate an in-house strip test for detection of anti-M. tuberculosis antibodies in TB patients, mostly children aged under 15 y, grouped into four diagnostic categories: active TB, LTBI, healthy TB contacts, and other non-TB diseases. The diagnostic performance of strip test was compared with the tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). Sensitivity and specificity were assessed for all three diagnostic tests. The detection accuracy among the tests was calculated by using a receiver operating characteristic analysis. TST and IGRA could diagnose the active TB cases correctly (100%). The sensitivity of strip test for active TB was 58.3% and 37.5% for LTBI, while the sensitivities of TST and IGRA for LTBI were 90.3% and 37.5%, respectively. The overall specificities of strip test and IGRA were 91.5% and 95.7%, respectively, which were superior to that of TST (68.1%). The strip test did not appear to be useful for diagnosis of active TB in comparison with t...Continue Reading

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