A STUDY ON THE USE OF MENSTRUAL BLOOD SAMPLING IN THE DETECTION OF FEMALE GENITAL TUBERCULOSIS BY NUCLEIC ACID AMPLIFICATION TECHNIQUE (NAAT)

Abstract

Objectives:To assess the prevalence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and rifampicin resistance in females of fertile age group suffering from genital tuberculosis using menstrual blood (MB), through nucleic acid amplication technique (NAAT).Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted for a period of 23 months which included 50 women of clinically suspected genital tuberculosis of childbearing age Day 1 or Day 2 MB of all females of child bearing age was taken. The specimen were subjected to AFB testing by ZN staining and NAAT by Truenat for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) DNA detection and Rifampicin resistance. The data was entered in MS EXCEL spreadsheet and analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Results: The mean age of study subjects were 26.6 ± 6 years. MB was positive for AFB Stain (ZN Stain) in 50% cases but MTB DNA was detected through Truenat in 1 only out of 50 patients. MDR -TB suspicion on the basis of ATT response was present in 7 out of 50 patients(14%) but none of the patients showed Rifampicin resistance on NAAT technique.Conclusion: We performed this study as a sort of Pilot project, which used Menstrual blood as a sample, since it is the most non-invasive sampling and tried to use new technique of Truenat for MTB detection and drug resistance characterisation. The negative ndings of the study must be interpreted in consideration of limitations such as small sample size, relatively newer technique and sampling method.