02077nas a2200217   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042100001100055700001500066700001300081700001200094700001700106700002400123700001600147245012700163856009400290300001000384490000700394520144400401022001401845       2005                            d  c2005 Jan1 aRaju R1 aSuneetha S1 aSagili K1 aMeher V1 aSaraswathi V1 aSatyanarayana A V V1 aSuneetha LM00aDiagnostic role of the antibody response to the 38kDa, 16kDa proteins and lipoarabinomannan of mycobacterium tuberculosis.  uhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3454160/pdf/12291_2008_Article_BF02893056.pdf  a123-80 v203 a<p>The antibody response to the 38kDa, 16kDa and Lipoarabinomannan (LAM) antigens ofMycobacterium tuberculosis was evaluated using three different ELISAs based on these antigens. The study group included tuberculosis patients (n=52), patients with HIV and TB co-infection (n=10), other chest symptomatics (n=5), HIV infected individuals (n=10), leprosy cases (n=7) and healthy controls (n=75). The results indicate that the 38kDa and LAM based ELISA for IgM/IgG has a low specificity (ranging from 69-85%) and sensitivity (ranging from 55-78%). When three ELISAs are carried out on a single patient the probability of detection of tuberculosis was significantly increased to 95.2% indicating that a single ELISA test is of low sensitivity and that a combination of ELISA's may be needed to be of any value as a diagnostic test for tuberculosis. Additionally, a western blot assay of the serum antibody response to protein fraction ofM. tuberculosis was analysed in 15 tuberculosis patients and five healthy controls. A multiple antibody response to various M.tuberculosis proteins was observed which varied from patient to patient as compared to controls who showed a single 38-39 kDa protein band positivity. These finding suggest that a western blot assay which determines the antibody response to a set of antigenic components ofM. tuberculosis could be a better serological test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in our population.</p>  a0970-1915