Indicadores de qualidade dos exames de diagnóstico de tuberculose do laboratório de microbiologia clínica da Universidade de Caxias do Sul

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a disease known and described for a long time, but it still entails serious public health problems worldwide. The etiologic agent of the disease is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but there are different microorganisms that make up the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, called mycobacteria, which are also sources of tuberculosis transmission. The disease is transmitted through the respiratory tract by aerosols, and its main symptoms are prolonged coughing and sudden weight loss. The diagnostic methods commonly used are bacilloscopy, using the Ziehl-Neelsen technique, and culture through the isolation and identification of the microorganism. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the quality indicators of bacilloscopy and culture test for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in outpatients and hospitalized patients, carried out at the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory (LMC), recognized by the Metrological Network of Rio Grande do Sul, according the ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17025:2017, from the University of Caxias do Sul. Data collected from test reports filed in the laboratory from January to August 2021, and analyzed using the percentage of each parameter included. The study had a final sample of n = 693 samples, 63 patients had positive results confirmed by at least one of the diagnostic methods. The positivity of samples for sputum smear microscopy was 20,2%, and for culture was 17,7%. The sensitivity and specificity of sputum smear microscopy were 92,0% and 85,0%, respectively. The survey allowed for a better understanding of the LMC's quality indicators profile, which revealed good results, precisely for having a qualified and standardized execution process. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]