acid-fast

Detection was improved when liquid culture media was employed for the detection of acid fast bacillus. Regular monitoring and screening of patients with COPD for PTB should be routinely carried out in susceptible cohort to avoid cross spreading of infection and appropriate management.

We also calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the 3 diagnostic modalities for detecting the acid fast bacillus in sputum samples.

A total of 335 suspected individuals exhibiting signs of fever, cough, weight loss, sputum production, chronic diarrhea, hemoptysis of more than four weeks duration were investigated initially by chest X-ray images, complete blood picture, urine examination, Mantoux test, sputum test for acid fast bacillus (AFB) and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).

Acid fast bacillus (AFB) smear test The smears of sputum, peritoneal and pleural fluids and content of lymph nodes were fixed, dried in the air, heat fixed and stained with Ziehl-Neelsen stain (ZN stain) and studied under the microscope to detect acid fast bacilli (Watt et al., 1996; Iqbal et al., 2010).