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Clinical Significance of Detecting M tuberculosis from Peripheral Blood
Author(s) -
Sehajpal Prabodh K,
Khosla Rajiv,
Dwivedi Alka,
Sarin Bipin C
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a1105-a
Subject(s) - medicine , tuberculosis , mycobacterium tuberculosis , pulmonary tuberculosis , peripheral blood , immunosuppression , peripheral , clinical significance , immunology , pathology , gastroenterology
Mycobacterium exists in blood but has never been considered a popular choice for documentation by PCR until the advent of AIDS. We conducted a prospective study on pulmonary (56) and extra pulmonary (21) tuberculosis patients in which peripheral blood has been tried as an alternative clinical specimen for the detection of M tuberculosis, especially in patients with paucibacillary form of the disease. Patients with immunosuppression due to medication or other causes were excluded and blood specimens were collected from normal healthy controls. The DNA was isolated using freezing and thawing method. PCR tests targeting insertion element IS 6110 were used to detect the presence of M. tuberculosis in the collected samples. Ninety two percent pulmonary tuberculosis and all extrapulmonary samples were found to be positive for the PCR test. Additionally, 30% of normal healthy controls also gave positive results for the mycobacterial DNA, although the average intensity of the amplified products in normal controls was only ~25% of the intensity observed in tuberculosis patients. These results were further validated using semi quantitative PCR methods. Our data strongly support the proposal that the release of M. tuberculosis bacilli in peripheral blood is more frequent than previously thought and is clinically relevant in diagnosing extra pulmonary tuberculosis.