The usefulness of adenosine deaminase in the diagnosis of tuberculous pericarditis
Tuon, F.Francisco.; Silva, V.Iida.da.; Almeida, G.M.Duboc.de.; Antonangelo, L.; Ho, Y.Li.
Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo 49(3): 165-170
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-4665 PMID: 17625694 Document Number: 609712
The objective of this study was to evaluate the adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity usefulness in the diagnosis of tuberculous pericarditis (TP), comparing its value with pericardial effusions (PE) caused by other pericardial diseases. A retrospective case-control study was conducted with nine cases of TP and 39 other than TP diseases (12 neoplastic, I I septic and 16 unknown origin). Every patient include(] in this study had PE samples submitted to ADA activity measures and microbiological analysis, and then had pericardial tissue samples submitted to microbiological and histopathological examination. Considering the value of 40 U/L as the cut-off for the diagnosis of TP, the specificity and sensitivity were respectively of 72% and 89%. The specificity of ADA activity for the TP was best applied in the differential diagnosis from PE of unknown origin. The present study demonstrates the clinical value of the measurement of ADA activity in PE in the diagnosis of TP.