title: Fine-needle aspiration, an efficient sampling technique for bacteriological diagnosis of nonulcerative Buruli ulcer.
abstract: Invasive punch or incisional skin biopsy specimens are currently employed for the bacteriological confirmation of the clinical diagnosis of Buruli ulcer (BU), a cutaneous infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. The efficacy of fine-needle aspirates (FNA) using fine-gauge needles (23G by 25 mm) for the laboratory confirmation of BU was compared with that of skin tissue fragments obtained in parallel by excision or punch biopsy. In three BU treatment centers in Benin, both types of diagnostic material were obtained from 33 clinically suspected cases of BU and subjected to the same laboratory analyses: i.e., direct smear examination, IS2404 PCR, and in vitro culture. Twenty-three patients, demonstrating 17 ulcerative and 6 nonulcerative lesions, were positive by at least two tests and were therefore confirmed to have active BU. A total of 68 aspirates and 68 parallel tissue specimens were available from these confirmed patients. When comparing the sensitivities of the three confirmation tests between FNA and tissue specimens, the latter yielded more positive results, but only for PCR was this significant. When only nonulcerative BU lesions were considered, however, the sensitivities of the confirmation tests using FNA and tissue specimens were not significantly different. Our results show that the minimally invasive FNA technique offers enough sensitivity to be used for the diagnosis of BU in nonulcerative lesions.
authors.affiliation: Mycobacteriology Unit, Department of Microbiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium. meddyani@itg.be
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eddyani
authors.forename: Alexandra G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Fraga
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Uwizeye
authors.forename: Krista
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fissette
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aguiar
authors.forename: Ghislain
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sopoh
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Barogui
authors.forename: Wayne M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pedrosa
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Portaels
mesh_terms: D001541:Benin; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D054312:Buruli Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D019911:Mycobacterium ulcerans / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*