Poor performance of a novel serological test for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in Bangui, Central African Republic

We assessed the performance of a serological test for tuberculosis (SDHO Laboratories Inc., Canada) in our setting. Among 68 of 99 suspected pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were scored as having tuberculosis on the basis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-positive culture, the sensitivity of the serological test was lower than that of sputum smear microscopic examination (20.6% versus 80.9%, respectively; P < 0.000001).