Novel biomarkers for Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Tuberculous Pleural Effusion

Abstract

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate the importance of serum, pleural adenosine deaminase (ADA), and Gene Xpert in Diagnosis of TB and TB Pleural Effusion (TB-PLE.).Material & Methods:The study was done with 75 TB cases, 50 cases of them were diagnosed as Pulmonary TB and 25 cases as TB pleural effusion, collecting also 50 non-TB pleural effusion, Malignant and acute bacterial infection comprise 21 and 29 cases respectively. Cases with transudative pleural effusion were excluded from the study. Finally, 75 were healthy control group.Results:There was a highly significant difference between the mean age of TB-PE Patients and Patients non-TB-PLE (P-value <0.001), while there was a non-significant difference with patients with P-TB (P-value >0.05). Mean of Serum ADA level were highest 53.16 U/L in TB-PE cases, shown to be statistically significant when compared to 43.2 U/L in P-TB and 25.4 U/L in non TBpleural effusion. With p-value of 0.02 and 0.001respectively.Conclusions:We concluded that GeneXpert can be a useful diagnostic method in patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis. Serum and pleural fluid ADA level is a very helpful test to rule out a TB and can help differentiate tubercular etiology from non-tubercular.