W H Makunde, R A Makunde, L M Kamugisha, S G Mgema, A Liwa
{"title":"Improved microscopy diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis using sodium hypochlorite concentration technique in Tanga, Tanzania.","authors":"W H Makunde, R A Makunde, L M Kamugisha, S G Mgema, A Liwa","doi":"10.4314/thrb.v9i2.14309","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis commonly relies on the bacteriological examination of sputum. A cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried out to compare on \"on the spot\" sputum staining using sodium hypochlorite (bleach method) and routine Ziel-Neelsen (ZN) staining technique. Study candidates included individual patients presenting with cough <3 weeks (Group I) and > or =3 weeks (Group II). Sensitivity and specificity of the bleach method was calculated and compared at 100% using the ZN staining technique as the standard. A total of 171 patients (94 males, 77 females) with mean age 34.9 years (SD +/- 12.9) were recruited. Fifty-eight patients had coughed for <3 weeks while 113 had coughed for 23 weeks. Smear-positive TB in Group I was 13.8% (95% CI = 5-23) while in Group II was 25.7% (95% CI = 21-29). Using the bleach method, the prevalence of smear-positive TB in Group II was 28.3% (CI 95% = 20-36). This was an increase in smear-positivity rate of 15.6% as compared to the ZN technique. These results suggest that the use of bleach technique \"on the spot\" improve the sensitivity of tuberculosis diagnosis among patients with a history of coughing of over three weeks. However, further studies in different settings are recommended to validate the technique.</p>","PeriodicalId":87458,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania health research bulletin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2007-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.4314/thrb.v9i2.14309","citationCount":"14","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tanzania health research bulletin","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4314/thrb.v9i2.14309","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 14
Abstract
Pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis commonly relies on the bacteriological examination of sputum. A cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried out to compare on "on the spot" sputum staining using sodium hypochlorite (bleach method) and routine Ziel-Neelsen (ZN) staining technique. Study candidates included individual patients presenting with cough <3 weeks (Group I) and > or =3 weeks (Group II). Sensitivity and specificity of the bleach method was calculated and compared at 100% using the ZN staining technique as the standard. A total of 171 patients (94 males, 77 females) with mean age 34.9 years (SD +/- 12.9) were recruited. Fifty-eight patients had coughed for <3 weeks while 113 had coughed for 23 weeks. Smear-positive TB in Group I was 13.8% (95% CI = 5-23) while in Group II was 25.7% (95% CI = 21-29). Using the bleach method, the prevalence of smear-positive TB in Group II was 28.3% (CI 95% = 20-36). This was an increase in smear-positivity rate of 15.6% as compared to the ZN technique. These results suggest that the use of bleach technique "on the spot" improve the sensitivity of tuberculosis diagnosis among patients with a history of coughing of over three weeks. However, further studies in different settings are recommended to validate the technique.