Evaluation of real-time PCR of patient pleural effusion for diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Background: Pleural tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis often requires invasive procedures such as pleural biopsy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the IS6110 sequence of M. tuberculosis in pleural fluid specimens as a rapid and non-invasive test for pleural TB diagnosis.

Determination of levels of specific IgA to the HspX recombinant antigen of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of determining specific IgA to HspX recombinant antigen in pleural fluid and serum samples for the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis in patients with pleural effusion.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Serum and pleural fluid samples of patients with pleural effusion and suspected of having pleural tuberculosis were tested with indirect ELISA in order to determine the optical density of specific IgA to HspX.