The Diagnostic Value of Polymerase Chain Reaction in Intestinal Tuberculosis

Lee, Tae Kyu; Kim, Young Hwan; Chang, U Im; Jun, Eun Jung; Kim, Jin Il; Park, Soo Heon; Han, Joon Yeol; Kim, Jae Kwang; Chung, Kyu Won; Sun, Hee Sik

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS
It is quite difficult to differentiate intestinal tuberculosis from Crohn's disease because of the similarities of their clinical and pathological features and low detection rate of acid fast bacilli. The diagnostic value of PCR has been studied in pulmonary tuberculosis, tuberculous pleuritis and meningitis, but few reports were made in cases of intestinal tuberculosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of PCR in intestinal tuberculosis.
METHODS
The subjects, a total of 70 cases are composed of clinically diagnosed intestinal tuberculosis, Crohn's disease and intestinal Behcet's disease. We performed PCR with paraffin-embedded intestinal tissue to detect the DNA of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and the data was analyzed.
RESULTS
The positive rate of PCR for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis was 9.8% (4/41) in intestinal tuberculosis, 0% (0/29) in Crohn's disease, and 0% (0/3) in intestinal Behcet's disease. The granulomas were not found in 50% (2/4) of the PCR positive intestinal tuberculosis cases.
CONCLUSIONS
We were not able to find evidences to prove the excellent value of PCR assay in making differential diagnosis of intestinal tuberculosis from other granulomatous diseases. But it might be helpful in detecting cases of intestinal tuberculosis which were not pathologically or microbiologically confirmed.