BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES As isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in culture requires a long time, there is a need for simple rapid method for direct detection of M. tuberculosis from clinical specimens. Amplified nucleic acid hybridization assays such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have shown promising results. In the present study, the sensitivity of PCR assay was assessed over smear mic...

BACKGROUND Quick diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and extra-pulmonary TB are urgently needed in clinical diagnosis. Our research aims to investigate the usefulness of the interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) for the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB. METHODS We performed TB antibody and TB-IGRA tests on 389 pulmonary TB patients (including 120 sm...

background: knowledge about childhood tuberculosis (tb) in iran is limited. this study aimed to determine the proportion of tuberculosis in children living in khuzestan in southwest of iran and its treatment outcomes.  methods: in this retrospective study, the child’s medical records registered in national tb program (ntp) unit of khuzestan health center (khc) for tb treatment from 2005 to 2010...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in Rawalpindi. SETTING Department of Microbiology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi. METHODS Between September 2000 and August 2002, 899 pulmonary and 460 extra-pulmonary specimens from suspected cases of tuberculosis were examined. The radiometric BACTEC 460 TB syste...

INTRODUCTION Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies have been considered very specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some studies have shown that these antibodies can be positive in infectious diseases like TB, HIV, etc. METHODS Fifty patients of tuberculosis both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary were enrolled in the study from inpatient and outpatient departments from May 2012...

Tuberculosis is one of the most important infectious diseases. In 2009 estimate 9 million new cases were registered worldwide, mortality due tuberculosis reached 1.5 million (Markowski et al., 2011). Tuberculosis may infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs (known as pulmonary tuberculosis) (Dolin et al., 2010). Extra pulmonary TB occurs when tuberculosis develops outs...

METHODS The clinical and epidemiological features of 102 children with extra-pulmonary tuberculosis, diagnosed between 1982 and 1998 at P & A Kyriakou Children's Hospital were reviewed. RESULTS During the past decade, a 50% increase of admissions for extra-pulmonary tuberculosis was observed. The source of infection was disclosed in 48 patients. Diagnoses included superficial lymphadenitis (n...