Detección de tuberculosis en el servicio de emergencia: utilidad de la segunda baciloscopia realizada el mismo día

Gina Tello; Martha Ugarte; Juan Agapito; Alonso Soto

doi:10.17843/rpmesp.2012.292.345

Authors

Gina Tello Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Perú Tecnólogo médico en Laboratorio Clínico.
Martha Ugarte Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Perú tecnólogo médico en Urgencias Médicas y Desastres.
Juan Agapito Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Perú Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Perú. microbiólogo.
Alonso Soto Hospital Nacional Hipólito Unanue. Lima, Perú. médico internista magíster en Estadística Aplicada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17843/rpmesp.2012.292.345

Keywords:

Tuberculosis, Sputum, Signs and symptoms, respiratory, Peru

Abstract

Conducting a same day smears is a strategy that has recently been adopted by the World Health Organization. Our study sought to determine the additional diagnostic yield of a second sputum smear taken on the same day among patients with respiratory symptoms, attended at the emergency room from two hospitals in Lima. We included 270 patients from January to November 2011, which were asked two samples of sputum within two hours; the samples were processed by the Ziehl Neelsen method. The frequency of positive sputum smears was 18.5%. The additional diagnostic yield for the second smear was 20.9%. Considering the high prevalence of tuberculosis diagnosed by sputum smear, it is suggested that this test be included routinely in the emergency rooms of hospitals in Lima Metro area.