Baskota D K, Rakesh Prasad Shrivastav, Bimal Kumar Sinha, Rcm Amatya.
Relevance of Tuberculin test, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, lymphocyte count and X-ray of the chest in tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis.
Pak J Otolaryngol Jan ;21(2):35-8.

STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, cross-sectional, case control study. OBJECTIVE: To find out the relevance of Tuberculin (Mantoux) Test, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Lymphocyte Count and X-ray of the Chest PA view in histopathologically confirmed cases of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis (TCL). METHODS: 103 histopathologically confirmed cases of TCL of more than six weeks duration attending to the Department of ENT-Head & Neck Surgery of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) Kathmandu, Nepal from March, 2000 to February, 2001. For the control study, parameters of the concerned investigations were taken from the healthy individuals who came for regular annual general health check up to the Department of General Practice of the same institution during the same time period. RESULTS: Mantoux test was positive in 96 (96%) of the 100 cases. Moreover, it was strongly positive in 44 (44%). Likewise, ESR was raised in 93 of the 100 cases (93%). Moreover, it was greatly raised in 70 (70%). In contras t, Lymphocytosis was seen only in six of the 100 cases (6%) and only three patients had associated pulmonary tuberculosis in their X-ray of the chest (2.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study so far indicate that a positive mantoux test and raised ESR are strong indicators of clinically suspected cases of TCL. However, lymphocytosis is found as an insignificant indicator of TCL and majority of TCL does not associated with pulmonary tuberculosis.

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