title: Positive ProbeTec tests in fresh specimens from malignant musculoskeletal tumors: a case series.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report a case series of patients with high-grade musculoskeletal sarcomas whose biopsies of fresh specimens yielded positive Becton Dickinson ProbeTec tests, in addition to confirming diagnoses of high-grade sarcomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fresh biopsies of high-grade musculoskeletal sarcomas were subjected to ProbeTec tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The biopsies of three Chinese patients aged 65, 49 and 78 years with high-grade musculoskeletal sarcomas had positive Becton Dickinson ProbeTec tests. These patients' overall clinical pictures were not consistent with active tuberculous infections, which suggested that the ProbeTec test results were false-positives. The reason for this is not known but it is postulated that there is homology between the primers used for the ProbeTec test and the molecular properties of high-grade sarcomas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With the increasing use of the ProbeTec test in clinical practice, fellow surgeons and pathologists are encouraged to be aware of this phenomenon.
authors: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore. med80199@yahoo.com
authors: Chia-liang
authors: CL
authors: Ang
authors: Leon Siang-shen
authors: LS
authors: Foo
authors: Shichao
authors: S
authors: Sun
authors: Sittampalam
authors: S
authors: Kesavan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000473:pathology; D005529:Foot Bones / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000473:pathology*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D013848:Thigh / Q000473:pathology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis*