COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMMERCIAL IMMUNO-CHROMATOGRAPHIC TEST STRIP AGAINST ZIEHL-NEELSEN STAIN IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF TUBERCULOSIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT A comparative study of Immuno-chromatographic test (Serology) with Ziehl-Neelsen (Z-N) staining technique was carried on patients who are suspected of having tuberculosis in the General Hospital, Minna, Niger state, Nigeria. The study was done to compare their performance in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Three Hundred (300) patients were enlisted for the study but only Two Hundred and Fifty-two (252)patients completed the study. Three (3) Sputum samples were collected from each patient for Z-N staining and 5ml of whole blood was collected from each patient concurrently for serological testing. At the end of the studies the result shows a Raw Agreement of 76% (range of 75-77%), Positive Agreement 1.4% (range of 1.2-1.6%), and a Negative Agreement of 75% (range of 74-76%) between the 2 methods. The Coefficient of Agreement ranged between 0.006 and 0.015(range of κ is 0.006-0.014; range of T is 0.0056-0.0154). The Sensitivity of the serological test was 12.76%, while it Specificity was 92.42%. It has a Positive Predictive value of 16.22%, while the negative predictive value was 80.53%. With these resu