Sumi, S.Radhakrishnan, V. V.2012-12-042012-12-042010JOURNAL OF CLINICAL LABORATORY ANALYSIS. 24; 5; 283-288http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcla.20401http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20872560https://dspace.sctimst.ac.in/handle/123456789/360Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli are seldom demonstrated in tuberculous pleural effusion (TPE) by conventional bacteriological methods. In this study, an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect IgG against four mycobacterial recombinant antigens (ESAT-6, PlcA, HspX and Tb8.4) in 69 pleural fluids of patients with TPE and 71 patients with malignant pleural effusion. To increase the sensitivity of the assay, a multi-antigen cocktail containing all the above antigens were also used. IgG positivity in ELISA for PlcA, HspX, Tb8.4, ESAT-6 antigens and multi-antigen complex were 49.3, 60.8, 49.3, 53.6 and 75.4% respectively. Each one of the above four antigens and their multi-antigen cocktail were highly specific in distinguishing tuberculous and malignant pleural effusion. This new generation immunoassay will serve as a useful marker for the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis patients in whom M. tuberculosis bacilli were not demonstrated by bacteriological methods. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 24:283-288, 2010. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Immunology