Evaluation of the cell wall antigen and recombinant 38Kd protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for serodiagnostic tests.

Objective To evaluate the Cell Wall antigen and recombinant 38Kd protein(CW and Rtpa38)as serodiagnostic reagents.Methods The CW and rTPA38 were used to detect sera antibodies using dot immunogold filtration assay(DIGFA).The Lipoarabinomannan(LAM)was used as control.Results In detecting the sera of 191 pulmonary tuberculosis patients,the sensitivity of CW,rTPA38 and LAM were 78.0%,65.5% and 72.3% respectively;there was very significant difference between CW and rTPA38(P0.01).The specificity of CW,rTPA38 and LAM in detecting other groups(healthy controls and non-tuberculosis respiratory patients)were 95.9%,98.4% and 95.9% respectively;there was significant difference between CW and rTPA38(P0.05).The consistant rates of the antibody with sputum smear were 84.9% and 69.8% respectively;CW had much more positive reaction than rTPA38.Conclusion CW which can provides a satisfactory sensitivity and specificity may become effective antigen in DIGFA.Detection of antibody and is helpful for serodiagnosis of tuberculosis.