1685Screening for TB in Health Care Workers – QFT may not be the answer!

Abstract

 Tuberculosis (TB) screening of healthcare workers (HCWs) is an important component of hospital infection control programs. Many institutions have replaced tuberculin skin tests (TSTs) with interferon-release gamma assays (IGRAs).  Challenges of IGRA tests include daily fluctuations of IGRA values, serial testing variability, higher conversion rates of IGRAs than TSTs, and indeterminate IGRA results. In addition, reversions of positive QuantiFERON® TB test (QFT) with low cut-off values (0.35 IU/mL to 1 IU/mL) to negative have also raised concerns.  Additional data is needed for IGRA use in HCWs.  An Employee Health algorithm was created prior to implementation of QFT testing at our institution (Figure 1). Background 1The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.