Abstract
The main problem in managing tuberculosis (TB) in children is the difficulty of establish-ing the diagnosis. Those problems are due to unspecific TB symptoms in children and the difficultyin obtaining representative and good quality specimens. Tuberculin skin test (TST) is an impor-tant diagnostic tool to identify TB infection in children. This study was aimed to evaluate whetherthe health nurses in primary health care (puskesmas) could perform TST and to evaluate whetherthey also could measure as accurate as medical doctors and pediatricians. Two hundred and fortychildren suspected TB in puskesmas were injected with tuberculin using Mantoux method. Thesensitivity and specificity of measurement by general practitioners compared to pediatricianswere 94% and 96% respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of measurement by nursescompared to general practitioners were 94% and 100% respectively. The positive likelihoodratios of both comparison groups were 26.44 and undefined. This study concluded that themedical nurses could perform and measure the results as accurate as the general practitioners socould the general practitioners compared to pediatricians.
| Original language | English |
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| Journal | Journal of the Indonesian Medical Association : Majalah Kedokteran Indonesia |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
