European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has affected humans for most of their history and remains a major cause of mortality in adults worldwide Prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) has been on a dangerous and positive spike for over a decade and has killed millions of people year on year. Almost, 1.3 million people in 2012 alone lost their lives to TB. As per the massive prevalence of TB, it would be incorrect to say that the disease does not poses like a pandemic. Alongside HIV, it remains a top cause of death from an infectious disease. Hence the present study was planned to evaluate the role of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in sputum negative pulmonary tuberculosis cases.
Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Era's Lucknow Medical College & Hospital, Lucknow. Sputum smear negative presumptive patients of PTB. All the relevant samples were sent for Cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT)/genexpert for BAL, post bronchoscopy sputum, bronchial aspirate, TBLB, Endobronchial biopsy and Transbronchial needle aspiration. Culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) was also obtained for all the patients. Culture is done on liquid media (MGIT).
Results: Majority of patients in the study population were adults: 21-60 years (82.6%), while only a small proportion of patients were aged ≤20 years and >60 years (8.7% each). Majority of patients in the study population presented with Cough (88.0%), Fever (78.3%), Loss of appetite (67.4%), Expectoration (63.0%) & Weight loss (56.5%). Majority of patients had negative CBNAAT (81.5%), AFB (95.7%) and Culture (77.2%) for Bronchial Aspirate. Thus indicating that fiberoptic bronchoscopy helps in establishing the diagnosis.
Conclusion: Considering the short processing time and high diagnostic efficacy, CBNAAT evaluation of bronchoalveolar lavage for detection of tuberculosis among sputum/smear negative tuberculosis cases is highly recommended