Sensitivity of acid-fast bacilli smear, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and Mantoux test in diagnosing tuberculous cervical lymphadenopathy

Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity of acid-fast bacilli smear, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and Mantoux test in diagnosing tuberculous lymphadenitis in comparison to the gold standard confirmatory histology examination using fine needle aspiration cytology. Materials and methods: Retrospective study conducted in a tertiary hospital between 2001 and 2016, involving patients confirmed as tuberculous lymphadenitis diagnosed via fine needle aspiration cytology. Results of Mantoux test, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and acid-fast bacilli in each of the patients were collected and data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 22.0. Results: Mantoux test had the highest sensitivity (77.37%) in diagnosing tuberculous lymphadenitis. On the other hand, erythrocyte sedimentation rate had the lowest sensitivity (32.31%). Acid-fast bacilli smear also showed to be a poor prognostic test (51.32%) for tuberculous as it was only able to differentiate around half of the positive cases. Conclusion: Mantoux test has the highest sensitivity followed by acid-fast bacilli smear and erythrocyte sedimentation rate.