Exploration of the diagnostic value and expression levels of blood IFN-γ and IL-2 in patients with lymph node tuberculosis

Symptoms and signs of lymph node tuberculosis(LNTB) lack specificity, which making identification difficult and increasing the likelihood of missed or misdiagnosed cases.This study aimed to examine the diagnostic effectiveness of IFN-γ/IL-2,for differentiating LNTB from non-tuberculous lymphadenopathy(Non-TB-LAP), as well as to analyze the variations in their expression levels among different subgroups. Ultimately, 95 patients with enlarged lymph nodes were enrolled in the study. Based on the diagnostic criteria of LNTB, 38 patients were Confirmed LNTB, 28 patients were Clinically diagnosed LNTB and 29 patients were Non-TB-LAP. The cut-off values of IFN-γ/IL-2 for differentiating LNTB from Non-TB-LAP were 58.267 pg/mL and 12.207 pg/mL respectively, through receiver operating characteristic curves. In patients with LNTB and Non-TB-LAP, the sensitivity of IFN-γ/IL-2 in parallel was 83.08%, which was higher than that of IFN-γ(p<0.05). When IFN-γ/IL-2 were combined in tandem, the specificity was the highest at 93.1%. The median level of IL-2 in patients with Confirmed LNTB was higher than that of Clinically diagnosed LNTB(p<0.05). In conclusion, IFN-γ/IL-2 have shown good diagnostic efficacy in LNTB. In addition, in patients diagnosed as LNTB, the expression level of IL-2 may be related to the burden of mycobacterium tuberculosis in the body and the activity of tuberculosis infection.