Abstract: Objective To evaluate diagnostic methods of cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTL).  Methods The clinical data of 128 patients with neck masses from April 2012 to December 2013 were summarized, in which 96 cases with CTL and 32 cases with cervical non-tuberculous lymphadenitis (non-CTL) has been confirmed. The positive rates of purified protein derivative (PPD) skin test, anti-tuberculosis antibody (TB-Ab), concentrated acid fast bacilli examination, the neck CT enhancement scan, T-SPOT.TB assay, Mtb-DNA-PCR were compared in the diagnosis of CTL. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS 13.0, comparisons between observation group and control group were performed using Chi-squared test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.  Results  The positive rates of TB-Ab in control group and observation group was respectively 46.88% (15/32) and 56.25% (54/96), the difference was not statistically significant (χ²＝0.849，P=0.357). The positive rates of PPD test, concentrated acid fast bacilli examination, CT enhanced scan, T-SPOT.TB assay, Mtb-DNA-PCR in the control group were respectively 25.00%（8/32）, 0%（0/32）, 15.63%（5/32）, 9.38%（3/32） and 0%（0/32）; while those in the observation group were 84.38%（81/96）, 13.54%（13/96）, 92.71%（89/96）, 98.33%（59/60）and 97.92%（94/96）, the differences had statistical significance (χ²＝39.938，P<0.01；χ²＝4.823，P=0.028；χ²＝73.105，P<0.01；χ²＝75.154，P<0.01；χ²＝117.961，P<0.01).  Conclusion The positive rates of CT enhancement scan, T-SPOT.TB assay and Mtb-DNA-PCR are higher than other methods in the diagnosis of CTL. Combination of a variety of inspection methods may help to diagnosis of CTL and differential diagnosis of neck mass.

Key words: Tuberculosis, lymph node/diagnosis, Interferon-gamma release tests, Polymerase chain reaction, Antibodies, bacterial