Genexpert's contribution to the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis

Tuberculosis has become a major health problem, presenting itself in two forms: pulmonary and extra-pulmonary, including lymph node tuberculosis. This thesis aims to evaluate the contribution of GeneXpert MTB/RIF to the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis and retrospective reviews were conducted over a six-month period from January to June 2022.The study sample comprises 1,600 individuals diagnosed with tuberculosis, of whom 339 (21.2%) were confirmed positive by the GeneXpert technique. Of the 1600 individuals, 73 were specifically diagnosed with lymph node tuberculosis, of which 36 individuals (49.3%) were confirmed positive. Several parameters were analyzed, including patient gender distribution, age ranges, examination of rifampicin sensitivity and the presence of lymph node tuberculosis and HIV co-infection. In addition, the study compared GeneXpert results with the microscopic Ziehl-Neelsen staining technique. These results provide valuable information on the usefulness of GeneXpert MTB/RIF in the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis, and offer a comparative perspective with a traditional diagnostic method, the microscopic Ziehl-Neelsen staining method. Keywords: GeneXpert, Extra-pulmonary tuberculosis, Lymph node tuberculosis, Pulmonary tuberculosis