Short report

Evaluating the usefulness of the ICT tuberculosis test kit for the diagnosis of tuberculosis

Chulhun Ludgerus Chang¹, Eun Yup Lee¹, Han Chul Son¹ and Soon Kew Park²

¹ Department of Clinical Pathology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, 10 1-Ga Ami-Dong Seo-Gu, Pusan 602-739, Korea
² Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Pusan National University

Correspondence to:
Dr Son email: cchl{at}hyowon.cc.pusan.ac.kr

Background—Early diagnosis of tuberculosis is crucial, especially in Korea, where tuberculosis is endemic.

Aims—To evaluate the validity of the ICT tuberculosis test (ICT) in early diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Methods—Sixty eight patients with tuberculosis were tested; 37 had no history of previous tuberculosis (patient group 1), and 31 had reactivated tuberculosis (patient group 2). The control groups comprised 77 subjects: 25 healthy adults, 35 hospital workers, and 17 inpatients with non-tuberculous respiratory diseases.

Results—The diagnostic sensitivities of ICT were 73% in patient group 1 and 87.1% in patient group 2. In two patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis, both tested positive using ICT. The specificities of ICT were 88%, 94%, and 94% in healthy adults, hospital workers, and non-tuberculous patients, respectively.

Conclusions—ICT is a useful tool for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Key Words: serological diagnosis of tuberculosis • ICT tuberculosis test

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kameswaran, M., Shetty, K., Ray, M. K., Jaleel, M. A., Kadival, G. V. (2002). Evaluation of an In-House-Developed Radioassay Kit for Antibody Detection in Cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Tuberculous Meningitis. CVI 9: 987-993 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Gounder, C., de Queiroz Mello, F. C., Conde, M. B., Bishai, W. R., Kritski, A. L., Chaisson, R. E., Dorman, S. E. (2002). Field Evaluation of a Rapid Immunochromatographic Test for Tuberculosis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 40: 1989-1993 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Saves, I., Lewis, L.-A., Westrelin, F., Warren, R., Daffe, M., Masson, J.-M. (2002). Specificities and Functions of the recA and pps1 Intein Genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Application for Diagnosis of Tuberculosis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 40: 943-950 [Abstract] [Full Text]