Usefulness of immunochromatographic detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium tuberculosis as an adjunct to auramine staining for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis in a low-prevalence setting.

Abstract

A novel immunochromatographic membrane-based assay for the detection of specific IgG antibodies to Mycobacterium tuberculosis was evaluated in patients with active tuberculosis in a low-prevalence population. The sensitivity of the test for detecting active tuberculosis was 41.5% (17/41 patients positive); its specificity in a group of patients with other lung diseases was 91.4% (3/35 false positive), while in a group of 47 healthy controls it was 100%. The sensitivity of the immunochromatographic test equaled that of auramine staining, but different subsets of tuberculosis patients were detected by the two tests. The suboptimal sensitivity of this immunochromatographic test implies that, even though it could be a useful adjunct, it cannot be a replacement for the diagnosis of tuberculosis by other microbiological methods along with clinical and radiological data.