POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION OF PLEURAL BIOPSY SPECIMENS FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF TUBERCULOUS PLEURITIS

SETTING: Government-administered regional teaching hospital. OBJECTIVE : To improve timeliness and sensitivity of laboratory diagnosis of tub erculous pleuritis. DESIGN: We applied polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect DNA (IS6110) specific for Mycobacterium tuberculosis comple x in pleural biopsy specimens. RESULTS: Of 28 patients with pleural di sease, 11 were diagnosed by microbiology (smear/culture of sputum or p leural fluid) with tuberculous pleuritis, eight were diagnosed with tu berculous pleuritis by histology (of pleural biopsies) and/or clinical presentation, and nine were diagnosed with carcinomatous pleuritis. S eventeen of the patients' pleural biopsies were PCR positive. Based on microbiological results, the sensitivity of the PCR assay was 100% (1 1/11). On the other hand, based on the results of the histological and clinical data, sensitivity and specificity of the PCR results were 89 % (17/19) and 100% (9/9), respectively. CONCLUSION: PCR of pleural bio psy specimens can be a useful method when employed in combination with microbiological and histological examinations of pleural biopsy for r apid diagnosis of tuberculous pleuritis.