Comparative study of Smear Microscopy, Rapid Slide Culture, and Lowenstein - Jensen culture in cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in a tertiary care hospital.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB), a dreadful disease known to mankind continues to be a problem in a developing country like India. The incidence of people getting infected with TB is on the rise due to compounding factors like coinfection with the human immunodefiency virus and multidrug-resistant strains. There is a definitive need for early diagnosis and treatment of TB to curb transmission of the infection.

The performance of quantiferon-TB gold in-tube (QFT-IT) test compared to tuberculin skin test (TST) in detecting latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in the presence of HIV coinfection in a high TB-burden area with BCG-vaccinated population.

Objectives: To compare quantiferon-TB gold "in tube" (QFT-IT) with the conventional tuberculin skin test (TST) for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in HIV-infected adults in a setting highly endemic for tuberculosis with BCG vaccinated population in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Patients And Methods: The study population (100 BCG-vaccinated adults) was divided into 4 groups: HIV patients with TB patient contact, HIV patients with past history of TB, TB patients (positive control), and healthy volunteers (negative control).

Results: Overall agreement between TST and QFT-IT was 52.