Mobinur Rehman, Gul Samber Khan, Saeed Ahmed Khan.
Comparison of diagnostic BCG and Mantoux tests in the early detection of tuberculosis in children.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;6(1):184-6.

Objective: To compare the proportion of positive cases detected by BCG diagnostic and Mantoux test in patients scoring ³7 on modified Keith Edward’s criteria. Patients and methods: This was a Cross sectional study conducted in Paediatric Department Unit-I, Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta from November 2003 to 2004. Two hundred children aged 0-15 years having tuberculosis on the basis of Kenneth Edwards Criteria were included in this study. They were divided into two equal groups of 100. Patients in group A were administered BCG diagnostic and group B Mantoux test and results were read after 48-72 hours. Results: Out of 200 cases128 (64%) were male and 72 female (36%).BCG diagnostic was positive in 71% and Mantoux test in 24% of cases, so total BCG diagnostic positivity was more than Mantoux. BCG diagnostic was found to be statistically significant. Among males 41 (54.2%) and females 30 (42.3%) were BCG diagnostic positive. BCG diagnostic was positive in 42(59.5%) in 1-5 year, 19 (43.1%) in 6-10 year and 10 (38.4%) in1-15 years old. The sensitivity of Diagnostic BCG was 71 %( 95%CI 64-77%) while the sensitivity of Mantoux test was 24% (95% CI 18-30). The odds ratio was 7.75 (95%CI 4.96-12.10) with a p value of <0.01. Conclusion: BCG diagnostic was more helpful than Mantoux test. This study shows BCG diagnostic was more sensitive than Mantoux in detection of tuberculosis allergy.

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