Clinical value of FCM and ICK in diagnosing AIDS patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Objective To evaluate the clinical value of detection of intracellular cytokine（ICK） by flow cytomeytry（ICCFC） in diagnosing AIDS patients with pulmonary tuberculosis,and to provide evidence for early diagnosis and treatment of the disease.Methods A total of 38 AIDS patients with pulmonary tuberculosis（an infected group） who were admitted into Xi’an Eighth Hospital from August 2017 to May 2018,44 AIDS patients（a high risk group） and 20 healthy subjects（a control group） were enrolled.Their proportions of specific T cells secreting interferon-γ（IFN-γ）in the peripheral blood due to stimulation by tuberculosis antigen were detected by FCM and ICK,and compared with the results of Mycobacterium tuberculosis related interferon γ release assay（TB-IGRA）.The clinical value of the diagnosis was analyzed by ROC curve.Results FCM and ICK showed 92.1% sensitivity,96.9% specificity and the Youden index of 0.889,which were better than those of TB-IGRA（sensitivity 71.1%,specificity 89.1%,and Youden index0.602）.ICCFC method under the ROC curve area（AUG） was 0.842（95% CI:0.763-0.921）,in contrast with TB-IGRA detection AUG 0.780（95% CI:0.687-0.872）.Conclusions FCM and ICK has higher sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing AIDS patients with pulmonary tuberculosis,with good diagnostic efficacy.