OVERVIEW
What is tuberculosis (TB)?
A serious and deadly bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis generally affects lungs but can affect other body parts as well. It is an airborne infection i.e. it spreads via infected person coughing, sneezing, or spitting. It causes pulmonary tuberculosis and different skin & abdomen infections.
What is mycodot (TB) IgG lab test?
This test is indicated when looking for anti-mycobacterial/ anti-tuberculosis antibodies in the blood serum released against mycobacterial antigens (tuberculosis infection). In this test by using ELISA (enzyme linked-immunosorbent assay) technique we look for Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies which are released after some time but stay in the body for lifetime.
Why is mycodot (TB) IgG by elisa lab test done?
The test is done:
- When TB infection is suspected due to symptoms like unexplained weight loss, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever, night sweats, chills, chills, and prolonged/persistent cough
- As it helps in rapid diagnosis of active tuberculosis infection
- Mycodot IgG antibody test has high degree of sensitivity & specificity for active disease
- As it helps distinguish b/w tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases
- It is for qualitative screening of anti-mycobacterium antibodies and not for quantitative concentration of TB antibodies
- It also recognizes antibodies of mycobacterium bovis and mycobacterium africanum.
- What is meant by MycoDot test?
This test detects anti-mycobacterial antibodies in serum sample of patients by using LAM (lipoarabinomannan; lipopolysaccharide present in cell wall of mycobacteria) antigen.
- What is meant by Elisa TB test?
Elisa test used in diagnosis of TB uses highly purified A60 antigen extracted from mycobacteria specie. And this test has 95% sensitivity and specificity. It can separately test both IgM and IgG antibodies
- What are the gold standard TB diagnostic test?
TB diagnosis by either isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) by culture or detection of MTB-specific nucleic acids by various molecular methods
- What is negative diagnosis?
It means that for whatever reason the test was indicated/ performed, it was unable to find that component in the sample.
- What appears first IgG or IgM?
IgG appears in body fluids after an infection or immunization. While IgM found in blood and lymph fluid appears firstly when the body fights a new infection.
Different laboratories have got different sensitivity and specificity results for Mycodot IgG antibodies.
- Seropositive: simply means that disease process is active
- Seronegative: means that person doesn’t have tuberculosis infection (not always necessary) or they are BCG vaccinated.
You get tested for diagnosis of active tuberculosis infection, and for distinguishing b/w TB and other pulmonary diseases. It also helps in rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis infection.