Frequency of Positive Results of Bacille Calmette Gurein and Mantoux Skin Tests in Suspected Cases of Childhood Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Objective: To determine the frequency of positive results of Bacille Calmette Gurein and Mantoux skin tests in suspected cases of childhood pulmonary tuber-culosis. Patients and Methods: This prospective intervent-ional study was conducted on 160 children from out-patient and inpatient departments of Pediatrics in Ser-vices institute of medical sciences, Lahore. An infor-med consent was taken from their parents for using their data in research and to keep the results confi-dential. Cases were diagnosed on the basis of history, examination and investigations. Each patient was given 0.1 ml BCG intradermally on left shoulder and 5 IU of PPD intradermally on volar aspect of right forearm. The results were observed after 48 hours of application in the form of induration (in mm). The diagnostic BCG 8 and Mantoux test 10 after 48hrs was taken 1 Assistant Professor, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Shadman Lahore – Pakistan 2 Assistant Professor, Continental Medical College, Lahore – Pakistan 3 Senior Registrar, Fatima Memorial Hospital, Shadman Lahore – Pakistan Date of Submission: 12-5-2016 Date of Acceptance for Publication: 15-8-2016 Conflict of Interest: None Funding Source: None Contribution All Authors have contributed in Study Design, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Data Interpretation, Manuscript Writing and Appr-oval. as positive. All the information was recorded in a pre-designed proforma. Results: Out of 160 patients, 83 (51.9%) were males and 77 (48.1%) were females. It was found that 72 (45%) patients showed positive response to both man-toux test and BCG. While alone BCG test was positive in 56 (35%) patients. Both BCG and mantoux tests were negative in rest of 32 (20%) patients. 131(81.9%) patients had variable degree of malnutrition. Severe malnutrition was present in 54 patients; out of these, 50 (92.6%) patients were BCG positive while only 10 (18.5%) patients showed positive response to mantoux test. Conclusion: BCG is more reliable than the tuberculin test in the diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis.