CORRELATION OF FNAC WITH CBNAAT IN EXTRAPULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS

Tuberculosis especially of head and neck has been an under diagnosed entity due to large number of smear negative cases, which results in missing out the positive cases, further increasing the burden of TB. The study highlights the extended implications of CBNAAT in infectious and lesions which are suspected of TB of head and neck, where the pus or aspirate was subjected to this test, other investigations which have been routinely used for detection of extra pulmonary tuberculosis had also done in this study also. Total 250 cases are included in this study which are having infective lesions of head and neck. This prospective type of study was conducted in Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Datia (M.P.) from September 2019 to September 2024, in the patients came with the complaints of Head and Neck lesion and suspected for Tuberculosis either symptomatic or not. FNAC was done of the swelling with 22/23 G with 20 ml disposable syringe. Microscopy, CBNAAT all done on the sample retrieved from swelling. 200 out of 250 patients were diagnosed positive for Tuberculosis. Microscopy (ZN staining) could detect only 1000 of such cases, whereas FNAC showed granulomatous lesion in 66 cases (33.3%). CBNAAT was positive in 77.7% of the total positive cases. Histopathological examination showed 100% results but was feasible only in selected number of cases (25 in this study). CBNAAT provides a promising role in early diagnosis of TB in head and neck. Its high sensitivity and less time taking procedure makes it an excellent tool for timely diagnosis of such cases.