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Objective: According to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria we classified Turkish children with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and tried to determine the sensitivity and specifity of PPD and BCG test in the diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis.
Study Design: In this cross-sectional study including 78 children (mean age:6.2±4.3 y) with presumptive diagnosis of TB, parameters of age, sex, weight, height, sputum samples, gastric aspirate, tuberculin skin test, BCG test, chest radiographs and thorax computerized tomography were obtained. The patients were grouped in three with clinical and laboratory findings according to the provisional guidelines for diagnosis of childhood TB proposed by the WHO criteria. Sensitivity and specifity of PPD and BCG tests were determined.
Results: Group I: The cases proven in bacteriologically ‘confirmed tuberculosis’ (27, 34.6%), Group II: Patients with probable tuberculosis (21, 26.9%), Group III: Patients with suspected TB but final diagnosis is not TB (30, 38.4%). No differences in mean age and sex ratio were observed among the three groups (p>0.05). Sensitivity and specifity of PPD test were 44% and 80% at confirmed tuberculosis and 46% and 100% at probable tuberculosis. Sensitivity and specifity of BCG test were %77 and %39 at confirmed tuberculosis and 79% and %53 at probable tuberculosis.
Conclusions: In our study, we assisted the diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis with WHO criteria. BCG test was found more sensitive than PPD test.