Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is being underdetected in children as most are smear-negative. This work was aimed at evaluating ESAT-6 and Ag85A synthetic peptides’ serodiagnostic potential for diagnosing children having a clinical suspicion of TB. Methods. The study involved 438 children: 77 Creole nonindigenous (13 suspected of having TB and 64 healthy ones) and 361 Warao indigenous children (39 suspected of TB and 322 healthy children). The approach’s diagnostic information was compared using operational characteristics and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results. Ag85A P-29879 had 94.6% sensitivity (: 0.651 to 0.819 95% CI) in indigenous children. ESAT-6 P-12036 and P-12037 had 100% and 92.3% of sensitivity (: 0.929: 0.846 to 0.975 95% CI and 0.791: 63.9 to 98.7 95% CI, respectively) in Creole children. ESAT-6 peptides also allowed a differentiation between children with TB and healthy ones. Conclusions. Further validation of this approach could lead to developing a complementary tool for rapid TB diagnosis in children.

中文翻译：

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ESAT-6 和 Ag85A 合成肽可用于临床疑似结核病儿童的免疫诊断测试

背景。由于大多数涂片呈阴性，儿童的结核病 (TB) 检测不足。这项工作旨在评估 ESAT-6 和 Ag85A 合成肽在诊断临床怀疑 TB 的儿童方面的血清诊断潜力。方法。该研究涉及 438 名儿童：77 名克里奥尔非土著儿童（13 名疑似患有结核病，64 名健康儿童）和 361 名 Warao 土著儿童（39 名疑似患有结核病和 322 名健康儿童）。使用操作特征和接受者操作特征 (ROC) 曲线比较该方法的诊断信息。结果。Ag85A P-29879 的灵敏度为 94.6% (: 0.651 至 0.819 95% CI) 在土著儿童中。ESAT-6 P-12036 和 P-12037 的灵敏度分别为 100% 和 92.3% (: 0.929: 0.846 至 0.975 95% CI 和 0.791: 63.9 至 98.7 95% CI）在克里奥尔儿童中。ESAT-6 肽还可以区分患有结核病的儿童和健康儿童。结论。对这种方法的进一步验证可能会导致开发一种用于快速诊断儿童结核病的补充工具。