title: Diagnostic Value of Serum Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) Level for Pulmonary Tuberculosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is not always easy, thus employing methods with a short duration and acceptable sensitivity and specificity is necessary to diagnose TB.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) level for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 160 sex and age-matched subjects were included in this study, and were divided to four groups; forty patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosed based on the national TB program (NTP), forty patients with non-tuberculosis bacterial pneumonia, forty patients with lung cancer and forty people who were healthy in every respect. Serum adenosine deaminase activity in patients of each group was measured by the Giusti and Galanti calorimetry method using a commercial kit (Diazyme, USA). The ANOVA analysis was used to compare groups for quantitative variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean serum ADA level in the PTB group was clearly higher than the mean serum ADA in the other three groups. Mean serum ADA was 26 IU/L in PTB patients, 19.48 IU/L in patients with pneumonia, 15.8 IU/L in patients with lung cancer, and 10.7 IU/L in the control group (P < 0.05). In regard to the cut off value of 26 IU/L for ADA in patients with PTB sensitivity and specificity was defined as 35% and 91%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum ADA activity with high specificity percentage may be a useful alternative test in restricted resource areas to rule out diagnosis of PTB. However, serum ADA activity is not a useful tool for TB diagnosis.
authors: Health Research Institute ,Infectious and Tropical Disease Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors: Shokrollah
authors: S
authors: Salmanzadeh
authors: Department of Pulmonology, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors: Heshmatollah
authors: H
authors: Tavakkol
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors: Khalid
authors: K
authors: Bavieh
authors: Health Research Institute ,Infectious and Tropical Disease Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Ahvaz, IR Iran.
authors: Seyed Mohammad
authors: SM
authors: Alavi
keywords: Adenosine Deaminase; Pulmonary, Tuberculosis; Sensitivity and Specificity