DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i07.014

Pages: 2555-2561

Diagnosis of sputum/smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis patients can be both challenging and time consuming with many patients being put on empirical anti-tubercular treatment. Fiber optic bronchoscopy may provide a confirmative and early diagnosis in such patients and the role of BAL ADA in diagnosing tuberculosis has been studied in present study. The present study consisted of 60 cases suspected of having tuberculosis based on clinical or radiological features that are sputum for AFB negative. They were subjected to FOB and BAL sample was sent for CBNAAT and Adenosine deaminase (ADA) and results obtained and sent for statistical analysis. The cases constituted of 43 tuberculous cases that BALF CBNAAT had had MTB detected and 17 cases that had BALF CBNAAT negative for MTB. In the present study ADA cut off level in BAL fluid was 3.84U/L with CI of 95% with sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 58.8%, PPV of 85% NPV of 77% with overall accuracy of 83% with a significant p value (˂ 0.001).