Use of Pleural Fluid Digital PCR Analysis to Improve the Diagnosis of Pleural Tuberculosis

• Published in: Microbiology spectrum Vol. 10; no. 6; p. e0163222
• Main Authors: Li, Zihui, Sun, Qi, Du, Boping, Jia, Hongyan, Dong, Jing, Lyu, Lingna, Zhu, Chuanzhi, Xing, Aiying, Yang, Xinting, Wei, Rongrong, Chen, Xiaoyou, Zhang, Zongde, Pan, Liping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Microbiology 21.12.2022
• Subjects: Clinical Microbiology; diagnosis; digital PCR; Humans; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - genetics; Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; pleural effusion; pleural fluid; pleural tuberculosis; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Research Article; Sensitivity and Specificity; tuberculosis; Tuberculosis, Pleural - diagnosis; diagnosis; digital PCR; pleural effusion; pleural fluid; pleural tuberculosis; tuberculosis
• ISSN: 2165-0497; 2165-0497
• DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.01632-22

The diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis (TB) remains difficult due to the paucity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pleural fluid (PF). This study aimed to improve pleural TB diagnosis using highly sensitive digital PCR (dPCR) technique. A total of 310 patients with evidence of PF were consecutively enrolled, 183 of whom suffered from pleural TB and 127 from non-TB. PF samples were prospectively collected and total DNA was extracted. The copy numbers of M. tuberculosis insertion sequence (IS) and IS in DNA were quantified using dPCR. The overall area under the curve of IS dPCR was greater than that of IS dPCR (0.85 versus 0.79). PF IS OR IS dPCR (according to their cut-off values, "positive" was defined as either of them was positive, while "negative" was defined as both of them were negative) had higher sensitivity and equal specificity compared with single target-dPCR. The sensitivity of PF IS OR IS dPCR for total, definite, and probable pleural TB was 59.0% (95% CI = 51.5% to 66.2%), 72.8% (95% CI = 62.6% to 81.6%), and 45.1% (95% CI = 34.6% to 55.8%), respectively. Its specificity was 100% (95% CI = 97.1% to 100.0%). PF IS OR IS dPCR showed a higher sensitivity than smear microscopy (57.4% versus 7.1%), mycobacterial culture (55.3% versus 31.8%), and Xpert MTB/RIF (57.6% versus 23.0%). Long antituberculosis treatment time (>1 month) was found to be associated with negative dPCR results in pleural TB patients. This study indicates that PF IS OR IS -dPCR is an accurate molecular assay, which is more sensitive than routine etiological tests and has the potential to enhance the definite diagnosis of pleural TB. Pleural TB is one of the most frequent causes of pleural effusion, especially in areas with high burden of TB. Due to the paucibacillary nature of the disease, the diagnostic sensitivities of all available bacteriological and molecular tests remain poor. There is an urgent need to develop new efficient methods. Digital PCR (dPCR) is the third generation of PCR that enables the exact quantification of trace nucleic acids in samples. This study evaluates the diagnostic performance of pleural fluid (PF) dPCR analysis for pleural TB, and shows that PF IS OR IS dPCR has a higher sensitivity than routine etiological tests such as smear microscopy, mycobacterial culture, and Xpert MTB/RIF. This work provides a new choice for improving the definite diagnosis of pleural TB.