Evaluation of the ICT Tuberculosis test for the routine diagnosis of tuberculosis.
BACKGROUND
Rapid and accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is crucial to facilitate early treatment of infectious cases and thus to reduce its spread. To improve the diagnosis of TB, more rapid diagnostic techniques such as antibody detection methods including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based serological tests and immunochromatographic methods were developed. This study was designed to evaluate the validity of an immunochromatographic assay, ICT Tuberculosis test for the serologic diagnosis of TB in Antalya, Turkey.


METHODS
Sera from 72 patients with active pulmonary (53 smear-positive and 19 smear-negative cases) and eight extrapulmonary (6 smear-positive and 2 smear-negative cases) TB, and 54 controls from different outpatient clinics with similar demographic characteristics as patients were tested by ICT Tuberculosis test.


RESULTS
The sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value of the ICT Tuberculosis test for pulmonary TB were 33.3%, 100%, and 52.9%, respectively. Smear-positive pulmonary TB patients showed a higher positivity rate for antibodies than smear-negative patients, but the difference was not statistically significant. Of the eight patients with extrapulmonary TB, antibody was detected in four patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that ICT Tuberculosis test can be used to aid TB diagnosis in smear-positive patients until the culture results are available.
Ongut
Gozde
G
Department of Medical Microbiology, Akdeniz University, Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey. gozdeongut@yahoo.com
Ogunc
Dilara
D
Gunseren
Filiz
F
Ogus
Candan
C
Donmez
Levent
L
Colak
Dilek
D
Gultekin
Meral
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007159:Immunologic Tests / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis*
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic