Abdul Sattar, Qaiser Mahmood, Nasreen Siddique.
Tuberculous ascites.
Professional Med J Jan ;11(4):427-30.

To assess the value of adenosine deaminase activity for the diagnosis of tuberculous ascites without performing peritoneal biopsy. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Medical Unit IV Nishtar Hospital, Multan. Material and Methods: Fifty patients and fifty controls were included in the study. The selection criteria for the patients were history, clinical examination and lymphocytic exudative ascites; and these were labeled as Group-A. While transudative ascites subjects were kept as control and denoted as Group-B. ADA activity in the ascitic fluid of all the subjects of Group-A and Group-B was estimated by Giusti G method. The ADA activity of 40 u/L. Results were statistically analyzed by applying chi square test. The results would be labeled statistically significant if p value calculated was <0.05 Results: The ADA activity of the Group-A was 42.4±10.62 u/L while that of Group-B was 20±10 u/L. Thirty-five in Group-A and five of Group-B had ADA activity above cut off value (P <0.001). Conclusion: The results favour the application of ADA activity in ascitic fluid as the diagnostic tool for tuberculosis ascites without performing an invasive procedure like peritoneal biopsy. The study revealed high levels of ADA activity in ascitic fluids of tuberculous patients as compared to control group (having transudative ascites), 42.4±10.62 u/L and 20.0±10.0u/L respectively.

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