Abstract:
This study was conducted at Abu Anja Hospital for Chest
Diseases (Omdurman) during the period from July to December
2005. The main aim of the study was to make a comparison
between Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) and flourochrome method in
diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis and to find out the possibility
of using flourochrome method in routine diagnosis of pulmonary
tuberculosis.
A total of 500 patients suspected of having pulmonary
tuberculosis were included. The sputum samples were
collected from each patient and examined for the presence
of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN)
and flourochrome staining methods.
By employing flourochrome method 195 positive cases
were detected (39 %), while ZN method demonstrated 126
positive cases (25.2 %). These results showed that the
flourochrome was more sensitive (P = 0.001) in comparison to
ZN staining method.
Furthermore, the results obtained demonstrated that males
were, fairly, more affected in comparison to females. However,
there were no significant difference (P = 0.11), between males
and females in contracting the disease.
While the most susceptible age group to infection was 25-
36 years, there were no significant difference (P = 0.124) among
all age groups examined in this study.
Although the flourochrome method was shown to be more
sensitive (P = 0.001) compared to ZN method, however, it was
cost-effective, laborious and difficult to use as a routine
diagnostic method for pulmonary tuberculosis in Sudan.
Furthermore, flourochrome, could, possibly be , a potential
carcinogen.
