How to get screened for tuberculosis

Screening tests for tuberculosis include: lung imaging, sputum tuberculosis bacillus test, immunology test, routine blood test, and C-reactive protein and blood sedimentation test. If the patient has recurrent symptoms such as low-grade fever, cough, night sweats, coughing up sputum, and wasting away, he/she needs to take tests to screen for tuberculosis. 1. Lung imaging examination: mainly lung X-ray examination, lung CT examination and other examinations. Lung X-ray examination can detect tuberculosis at an early stage, and can also determine the scope, location and nature of tuberculosis, so as to diagnose the condition in time for treatment. Lung CT examination is more capable of detecting hidden or small lesions than lung X-ray examination. 2. Sputum tuberculosis examination: It includes sputum smear examination and sputum tuberculosis culture, which is simple, feasible and highly accurate. The diagnosis of tuberculosis can be confirmed when tuberculosis bacilli are detected in the sputum of a patient. Patients need to check three sputum specimens for the first screening, i.e., sputum at night, sputum in the morning and sputum at that time. The results of sputum TB culture are efficient and can be used as drug sensitivity test for TB bacteria. 3. Immunologic examination: mainly includes the tuberculin test, which is relatively simple to perform and can show a certain degree of lesions. 4. Blood tests: Generally, most patients have normal white blood cell counts, except for some patients whose hemoglobin may be lowered. If the patient is in the acute stage of the disease, the white blood cells will increase and the blood sedimentation rate will also increase. If the patient is diagnosed with tuberculosis, he/she needs to follow the doctor’s instructions for anti-tuberculosis treatment, such as rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and so on.