The Comparative Study Of The Efficacy Of Ziehl Neelsen Staining Auramine Staining And Gene Xpert Cabnaat For The Diagnosis Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a major public health problem worldwide. It was among the top thirteen causes of death worldwide, and the main cause of death from a single infectious agent (ranked higher than HIV/AIDS) before Covid-19 pandemic. Globally, 9.9 million TB new cases were reported in 2020, equivalent to 127 cases per 100,000 population. The estimated incidence of TB in India in 2020 was 2640,000 equivalent to 199 cases/ 100,000 population. Pulmonary tuberculosis is the infectious form of TB which is associated with the lungs and accounts for 80% of all tuberculosis cases. The diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis requires sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Sputum smear microscopy is the main method that is widely used for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) staining is the most extensively used procedure for the detection of acid fast bacilli in the sputum smears done under bright field microscopy although the sensitivity of this method varies from 30% to 80%. Fluorescent microscopy (FM) is another method of smear microscopy where smears are stained with fluorescent stain, auramine-O. The Due to its high sensitivity, FM provides far better yield and detection of positive smears than ZN also it takes less time. newline