Study of respiratory symptoms among sputum positive

person with cough, chest pain for one month or more, or blood spitting at
any time confined to home for one month or more on account of illness.
Teklu (1993) has used the definition oftuberculosis "suspect" as patient
with: 1- Cough and haemoptysis for 2 weeks.
2- Cough and any other respiratory symptoms with constitutional
symptoms in any combination (Fever, night sweets, poor appetite,
weight loss and weakness) for 4 weeks.
Cohen et al (1996) found a significant correlation between
symptoms "cough, sputum and weight loss" and "smear positive TB". Also
they found that, the presence ofcough, sputum and weight loss for less than
2 weeks and the absence oftypicalCXR were strong negative predictors of
tuberculosis. So this study was done for assessment of specificity and
sensitivity of respiratory symptoms in diagnosis of active sputum positive
pulmonary tuberculosis.
The method used In this study was microscopic examination of
sputum for AFB (acid fast bacilli), using kinyouns staining, concentration of
specimens by centrifugation conducted in this method increase the capacity to
detect mycobacteria (Saceanu et aI., 1993 and Fodor, 1995) and also it has
advantages ofdevoid ofdirect heat which has lethal effect on tubercle bacilli,
and it has a higher significant in recovery ofmycobacteria in comparison with
directed ZN method (Refaat, 1999). CDC (1996) stressed the importance of
direct smear +ve sputum in infection. It have many advantages as it is the
easiest and quickest procedure to be performed, and it provides the physician
with confirmation of the diagnosis, also because it gives a quantitative
estimation of the number of bacilli being excreted, the smear is of vital
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