Application of T-SPOT.TB assay in the diagnosis of pelvic tuberculosis

WEI Han; LIANG Yachong; WANG Guowei; HOU Zhihua

Abstract：ObjectiveTo investigate the applicability of interferon gamma-released assay (T-SPOT.TB) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infections to the diagnosis of pelvic TB.MethodA total of 28 patients clinically diagnosed with pelvic tuberculosis and 36 patients with pelvic tumor were enrolled. The peripheral blood and pelvic effusions were detected by T-SPOT.TB, respectively. The pelvic effusions were also tested by real-time PCR for MTB. Then, sensitivities and specificities of the results were compared.ResultsThe sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB for the peripheral blood and pelvic effusions was 60.71% and 75.00%, respectively, but was 28.57% for the real-time PCR of pelvic effusions. There was no difference between T-SPOT. TB for the peripheral blood and that for pelvic effusions(χ2=1.310,P>0.05). However, the difference between T-SPOT.TB and real-time PCR was significant(χ2=7.292,P<0.01 andχ2=14.000,P<0.001). The specificity was 91.97%, 88.89% and 86.11%, respectively.ConclusionT-SPOT.TB performed on peripheral blood and pelvic effusions is of great value for diagnosis of pelvic tuberculosis.