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Abstract
This study compared the effectiveness and sensitivity of three different diagnostic methods of identification of pulmonary tuberculosis. These were Led fluorescent microscopy, Zeihl-Neelsen staining technique and GeneXpert assay for detection of the bacterium in sputum specimen. A cross sectional study was conducted among 435 patient suspected to have pulmonary tuberculosis at the Bingham Teaching Hospital Jos Plateau State Nigeria. The patients sputum were collected over three months period, 196 (45%) were males while 239 (55%) were females. For all specimens’ collected Z-N detected 54 (12.4%) positive cases, FM detected 46 (10.6%) positive cases while the GeneXpert detected 57(13.1%) positive cases. All patients were subjected to test for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), only 55 (28.1%) of males were HIV positive while 94 (39.3%) females were HIV positive. Although the identification identification techniques used were found to be specific, the result showed that GeneXpert was most sensitive and accurate than the other two. Consequently health care professionals may be encouraged to use the GeneXpert more since it very fast, more realable and it can also detects the resistance of rifampicin in the sample alongside with detection of the bacterium.
