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[Serological diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis using ELISA and the A60 antigen]
M C Ladrón de Guevara1, A González, A Ortega
1Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital La Paz, Madrid.
Background:
Study of the utility of a serologic technic in the clinic diagnostic of the pulmonary tuberculosis.
Methods:
An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting serum antibodies (IgG) against the antigen A60 has been applied to 170 tuberculosis patients (151 adults and 19 children) and 35 healthy children not protected with BCG.
Results:
The ELISA results obtained with tuberculosis patients were: 84.8% positive IgG in adults and 21.1% in children. The percentage of serologically positive cases in healthy children against the antigen A60 was 11.5%. All the results were statistically significant (p less than 0.01).
Conclusions:
This test can be successfully applied as a support technique in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in adults, it will be necessary to know the endemic situation in each community analysed.