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[Clinical significance of a new technique of microscopic visualization in extrapulmonary tuberculosis]
1Departamento de Microbiologia Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Córdoba.
Background:
The aim of this work was the clinical investigation of a new method of microscopy to improve the sensitivity in the diagnosis of tuberculosis in comparison with the actual conventional technique, without detriment of specificity.
Methods:
A comparative study between Smithwick fluorescence technique and a new technique named big drop fluorescence has been made with a total of 185 clinical samples of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. All samples were carried in parallel with both technique, the Smithwick usually utilized in the majority of laboratories, and a new technique described recently by us, named big drop fluorescence, that use a sample with more concentration and different times of stain, with the same reagents.
Results:
A sensitivity of 12.5% and 56.2% respectively was obtained with Smithwick and big drop fluorescence techniques. A specificity of 97.0% with big drop fluorescence and 98.2% with Smithwick was obtained. This improvement of sensibility was very important and the lost of specificity was so little that a statistic difference without both techniques was not observed.
Conclusions:
The new technique named big drop fluorescence (BDF) shows greater sensitivity in the microscopical diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis.