COMPARISON OF THE UTILITY OF CARTRIDGE BASED NUCLEIC ACID AMPLIFICATION TEST (CBNAAT) AND ZIEHL NEELSEN STAINING IN CULTURE POSITIVE GA SAMPLES IN DIAGNOSING PULMONARY TB IN PAEDIATRIC POPULATION.

Tuberculosis is caused by the slow - growing bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and can manifest as pulmonary or extrapulmonary disease. The real extent of childhood TB in India is unknown because of it's variable presentation often making it difficult to diagnose clinically compared to adult TB. Children, typically, are unable to expectorate sputum therefore alternate samples like bronchoalveolar lavage fluid,gastric aspirate,laryngeal swab and stool samples are collected to diagnose TB.A total of 407 gastric aspirate samples,of children aged between 6 months to 12 years, presenting to the paediatric out-patient department, from March 2024 to February 2025 with strong clinical suspicion of pulmonary TB were included in the study. These samples were processed for detection of MTB by liquid culture method. Further,Cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test and Ziehl Neelsen staining was performed on the MGIT positive samples to evaluate these diagnostic parameters. Thus, our study was carried out to compare the utility of Cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) and ZN staining in culture positive GA samples in diagnosing pulmonary TB in children under 12 years of age