This study aimed to validate the value of tuberculostearic acid (TBSA) whether it could implicate the existence of M. tuberculosis and assist for clinical diagnosis of Tuberculous Meningitis (TBM). Gas Chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to detect TBSA in the chemically pretreated cerebrospinal fluid of suspected TBM patients. In total, 140 patients were admitted for our study included 27 confirm TBM patients and 50 TBSA positive patients. Sensitivity of 0.7407 (CI 95%: 0.5372-0.8889) and specificity of 0.7345 (CI 95%: 0.6432-0.8132) were calculated. The Lancet consensus scoring system was also applied to evaluate the possibility of TBM in suspected patients, finding that TBSA positive patients showed a similar distributive grouping as the definite TBM patients. Our study implicates that the prospective use of TBSA is worth combining into a scoring system for characterizing the features of Mtb, showing a great potential of TBM diagnosis by TBSA in the future.
Tuberculostearic acid, a potential parameter for scoring system construction for Tuberculous meningitis diagnosis
