Multiplex PCR technique could be an alternative approach for early detection of leprosy among close contacts - a pilot study from India

Table 3 Sensitivity of AFB and multiplex-PCR as diagnostic tools in detecting multibacillary leprosy cases among different categories of multibacillary patients

BL n = 53
Clinical status of the disease	Cases confirmed by AFB In SSS(Slit skin smear)		Cases confirmed by Multiplex-PCR	Percent of positivity by AFB test	Percent of positivity of M-PCR test
	BI	No of case
Patients without treatment (New Cases)(n = 44)	2	23	23	100%	100%
	3	11	11
	4	10	10
Patients on treatment not more than 2 months (n = 5)	0	4	2(50%)	25%	60%
	2	1	1
	3	0	0
	4	0	0
Patients released from treatment (RFT)^(a)/later developed a new active lesion/relapsed cases^(b) (n = 4)	0	2^a,	2(0%)	50%	50%
	2	1^a	1^a
	3	1^b	1^b
Total n = 53				71.6% (38/53)	88.67% (47/53)
LL n = 152
Clinical status of the disease	Cases confirmed by AFB In SSS(Slit skin smear)		Cases confirmed by Multiplex-PCR	Percent of positivity by AFB test	Percent of positivity of M-PCR test
	BI	No of case
Patients without treatment (New Cases)(n = 115)	2	8	8	100%	100%
	3	35	35
	4	37	37
	5	31	31
	6	4	4
Patients on treatment not more than 2 months (n = 12)	0	4	1(25%)	66.66%	75%
	2	3	3
	3	2	2
	4	3	3
	5	0	0
	6	0	0
Patients released from treatment (RFT)^(a)/later developed a new active lesion/relapsed cases^(b) (n = 25)	0	14^a,1^b	2(13.33%)	40%	48%
	2	1^a,2^b	3
	3	2^b	2
	4	2^a,1^b	3
	5	1^a	1
	6	1^a	1
Total n = 152				83.4% (133/152)	89.2% (136/152)

ISSN: 1471-2334