[Clinical diagnostic value of the PCR assay for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis].

TL;DRAbstract

To evaluate the clinical diagnostic value of the PCR assay for detection of M. tuberculosis, a total of 758 samples from 387 patients were assayed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the IS6110 gene as a target, and the results of the PCR assay were compared with those obtained by conventional culture. The patient's profiles such as clinical situation that required prompt differential diagnosis by the PCR assay, underlying disease and final diagnosis were analyzed. The PCR assay lead to the rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis which was confirmed by culture in all 56 cases including elderly and immunocompromised patients. One hundred and seventy-six of the 231 (76.2%) cases had abnormal shadows in the chest X-ray film that required the PCR assay for diagnosis of tuberculosis and differential diagnosis of pleural effusion, lung cancer or bacterial pneumonia. Negative PCR results were also used when active pulmonary tuberculosis had to be excluded. Forty-nine out of 95 cases (51.6%)

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