[Antituberculosis antibodies detected by an immunoenzyme test in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis].

The method of indirect solid-phase enzyme immunoassay (EIA) was used to detect antibodies in the sera of 166 pulmonary tuberculosis patients and 56 healthy donors. A preparation with a mol. mass of 38-42 kD was used as an antigen which was isolated from the mycobacteria H37Rv by a consecutive separation under high pressure, extraction of KCl cellular membranes and gel-filtration in the gel Toyopearl HW 55F. Antituberculous antibodies (AtAb) were detected by the EIA method in 94% of pulmonary tuberculosis patients which was much higher as compared to the same parameter in healthy subjects (10.7%). Hence, AtAb detection by this method can serve as an additional criterion for tuberculosis diagnosis. The detection rate and AtAb level are higher in fibrocavernous tuberculosis than those in infiltrative tuberculosis. The AtAb detection rate is higher in manifested intoxication than in moderate one or its absence. AtAb are more often detected in chronic than in newly diagnosed tuberculosis, in the disseminated forms than in the limited forms, in pronounced infiltration in the lungs as compared to a moderate form, and also in patients with bacillary excretion than in those whose sputum had no M. tuberculosis.