Suraj Kumar Jain1 , Kumuda Bandhu Sahoo2 , Jaya Chandra T.3
BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is a world pandemic. Osteoarticular Tuberculosis (OTB) comprises 1 - 4.3 % of all TB cases. In one of our previous reports, it was mentioned that Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) staining is a good alternative for the diagnosis of OTB. With this we studied the utility of modified ZN (MZN) staining in the diagnosis of OTB. METHODS This is a cross sectional comparative study. Individuals aged > 18 years, clinically confirmed cases of OTB were included in the study. Clinical sample was collected by FNAC which was an outpatient procedure. In the microbiology laboratory, 2 smears were prepared; one was stained by ZN and other by MZN staining. Chi square test was used to find the statistical significance, p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS 62 % were smear positive (SP) with ZN staining, and 67 % with MZN staining; statistically, there was no significant difference. Gender wise, with ZN staining, the smear positivity (SPT) was 36.6 %, 27 % and with MZN staining, the SPT was 39 %, 28 %, respectively for male and female; statistically there was no significant difference between the genders in both the staining techniques. CONCLUSIONS MZN staining is a better technique compared to ZN staining for the diagnosis of OTB.
