Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA in pericardial fluid, bone marrow and peripheral blood in a patient with pericardial tuberculosis- A case report

Definitive diagnosis of tuberculous pericarditis requires identification of bacilli in pericardial fluid or tissue. Conventional diagnostic methods ar e time-consuming and have a low sensitivity making bacteriological confirma tion of the disease very difficult. Hereby. we report the case of molecular detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pericardial fluid, bone marrow and peripheral blood from a 63-year-old woman with pericardial tuberculosis , using a nested PCR assay specific for IS6110 insertion element of M. tube rculosis complex. The patient had an excellent response to a three-drug com bination anti-tuberculous regimen and I year later was asymptomatic. withou t evidence of constrictive pericarditis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.