• Betul Copur and Ozgur Pasa.
• Haseki Training and Research Hospital, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology - Istanbul, Turkey.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2022 Sep 1; 68 (9): 1234-1239.

ObjectivePositive results of the serum tube agglutination test that persist after treatment may be interpreted by clinicians as treatment failures. Therefore, our study examined the value of serum tube agglutination test in demonstrating treatment success.MethodsIn this retrospective study conducted at a single center, the pre- and post-treatment serum tube agglutination test titers of patients diagnosed with brucellosis were compared.ResultsThe end-of-treatment serum tube agglutination test titer was negative in 24 (18%) of 139 patients diagnosed with brucellosis. The most common complaints of the patients were fever (78.4%), chills (88.5%), sweating (84.9%), anorexia (79.1%), and arthralgia (63.3%). The rate of positive blood culture before the treatment was 68.3%. The absence of fever (p=0.005) and arthralgia (p=0.024) and the pretreatment serum tube agglutination test titer of <1/160 (p=0.014) were significant markers of serological cure.ConclusionAlthough serum tube agglutination test is an effective and very successful test in the diagnosis of brucellosis, our study shows that serum tube agglutination test is not useful in demonstrating the treatment success of human brucellosis in the early post-treatment period.

11 keywords...

hide…