Utility of the Bard BTA test in detecting upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES

The Bard BTA test has been shown in early studies to be useful in diagnosing transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder. However, the utility of this test has not been evaluated for TCC of the upper urinary tract. We therefore evaluated the clinical utility of the BTA test for upper urinary TCC.

METHODS

We tested 71 specimens from the ureter and/or renal pelvis in 22 patients with a history or clinical suspicion for TCC and 9 patients with benign disorders.

RESULTS

When compared to cytologic diagnoses, BTA had a sensitivity of 65%, a specificity of 40% (when correlated with clinical history), a false-positive rate of 33%, and a false-negative rate of 62%. The test had a positive predictive value of 83% and a negative predictive value of 32%.

CONCLUSIONS

The BTA does not have any clinical value in detecting upper urinary tract TCC.