The Application of Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Rifampicin, Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction and High Resolution Melting Curve in the Diagnosis of Superficial Lymph Node TB.

The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of conventional methods for superficial lymph node tuberculosis (LNTB) are not ideal. We evaluated several novel methods including Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis/rifampicin (Xpert MTB/RIF) technology, quantitative fluorescence Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) and High-Resolution Melting Curve (HRMC) in the diagnosis of superficial lymph node TB.Specimens from eighty-one consecutive patients with suspected LNTB and thirteen cases with other lymph node disease were analyzed by Xpert MTB/RIF, qPCR, and HRMC.Among 81 patients with clinical suspicion of LNTB, there were 74 (91.4%) cases positive Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) of Xpert MTB/RIF, 60 (74%) positive of qPCR, 24 (29.6%) of positive of BACTEC MGIT960 culture, and 13 (16%) cases positive of Roche culture. 38 cases (46.9%) were diagnosed with LNTB. All test methods showed a diagnostic specificity of 100% for LNTB. The sensitivity of molecular biology techniques was significantly higher than that of the traditional diagnostic methods, and Xpert MTB/RIF was the most sensitive diagnostic assay. On Rifampinresistant detection, Xpert MTB/RIF detected three cases (3.7%) with rpoB gene mutation, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis susceptibility testing detected 2 rifampicin-resistant cases (2.4%) which were consistent with Xpert MTB/RIF results. In the Isoniazid-resistant, 7 cases (8.1) of isoniazid resistance mutations (8.1%) were detected by HNC and 1 case was confirmed by Isoniazid susceptibility test.Molecular detection increased the diagnostic sensitivity of LNTB and improved the detection sensitivity for rifampin and isoniazid resistance strain.