STUDY OF THE ROLE OF POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION"PCR" IN DIAGNOSIS OF BOTH PULMONARY AND PLEURAL TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

TB is a global health problem, which kills more than 3 million individuals annually. The inability to diagnose the TB patients early enough is the main cause of failure of TB control programs and resurgence of TB in the last few years as the leading cause of death in the world from an infectious agent. Because of the shortcomings of the traditional methods for diagnosing TB. There was an urgent need for a rapid, sensitive and specific diagnostic test. 1n this study, we try to evaluate the role ofPCR as a diagnostic test that mccts all thcsc rcqurcmcnts for diagnosis of pulmonary and plcural TB. This study included 57subjects (42 males and 15 females) classified in two groups, the first group consisted of 39 patients (31 males and 8 females) with ages from 17 to 76 years (mean 45.79 ± 17.97), with clinical and radiological evidence of pulmonary TB. The second group consisted of 18 patients (1 males and 7 females) aged from 18 to 65 years (mean 38.94 ± 16.67), with clinical and radiological evidences of TB pleural effusion . The following items were performed to all subjects: 1. Full medical history taking. 2. Full clinical examination: - general and local clinical examination. 3. Radiological examination: PA and lateral chest X-Ray films were done for all patients. 4. Tuberculin skin test: - using Mantoux technique. 5. Routine investigations: CBC, ESR, fasting and postprandial blood sugar, liver function tests and kidney function tests.