S. Bhaskar et al., SLIDE AGGLUTINATION-TEST FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF PULMONARY AND EXTRA-PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS, Tubercle and lung disease, 77(2), 1996, pp. 160-163
Objective: Evaluation of a 2 min slide agglutination test to detect th
e presence of antibodies directed against Mycobacterium tuberculosis a
ntigens. Design: The test utilizes solible antigens extracted from a c
ultivable new species of non-pathogenic saprophytic mycobacterium, Myc
obacterium w, which shares antigenic determinants with M. tuberculosis
. The soluble antigens are covalently linked to carboxylated polystyre
ne latex beads. Results: The sensitivity of the assay was increased fr
om 78% (reported earlier), to 90.2% for pulmonary tuberculosis and 85.
7% for extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. The specificity of the test was d
etermined by testing the sera of apparently healthy controls, and pati
ents with other respiratory tract infections and rheumatoid arthritis.
Among the apparently healthy controls, 7.3% tested positive. None of
the sera from the patients with other diseases gave positive agglutina
tion. Conclusion: This simple and rapid technique could be suitable fo
r mass screening for pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.