Abstract
Central nervous system tuberculosis remains a clinical diagnostic challenge. The ex vivo Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) is a novel assay for the rapid detection of M. tuberculosis-specific T-lymphocytes in the peripheral blood. However, when performed on peripheral blood, this assay cannot distinguish between active tuberculosis or latent tuberculosis infection. On the assumption that M. tuberculosis-specific T-lymphocytes migrate to sites of infection, we were able to demonstrate high levels of M. tuberculosis-specific cells by ELISPOT in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient with tuberculous meningitis and intracerebral tuberculoma four weeks before cerebrospinal fluid culture became positive for M. tuberculosis by culture.
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Kösters, K., Nau, R., Bossink, A. et al. Rapid Diagnosis of CNS Tuberculosis by a T-Cell Interferon-γ Release Assay on Cerebrospinal Fluid Mononuclear Cells. Infection 36, 597–600 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-007-7316-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-007-7316-0