Abstract
BackgroundThe present study was designed to investigate the utility of Quantiferon TB gold (QFT-G) and Tuberculin skin test (TST) for diagnosis of latent TB infection (LTBI) in high crowding TB endemic zone of Nagpur, India and their comparison with associated risk factors.MethodsOut of 342 eligible participants, QFT-G and TST were performed in 162 participants.ResultsThe prevalence of LTBI observed according to QFT-G and TST was 48% and 42% respectively, with an agreement of 52.47%. QFT-G positivity was associated with age while TST positivity was associated with body mass index (BMI). Duration of exposure emerged as a key risk factor significantly associated with both the tests.ConclusionThe prevalence of LTBI was quite high in the studied zone as detected by both the evaluated tests and thus, the combination of both the tests will be best predictive for LTBI in such high TB endemic regions.
Highlights
Tuberculosis remains one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide [1,2] Household contact with active tuberculosis (TB) patients has been implicated as one of the crucial factors responsible for transmission of TB disease [3,4]
Despite the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in India, limited measures are undertaken for its diagnosis in densely populated TB endemic regions
The diagnosis of latent TB infection (LTBI) has relied on the Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) [5]
Summary
Tuberculosis remains one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide [1,2] Household contact with active tuberculosis (TB) patients has been implicated as one of the crucial factors responsible for transmission of TB disease [3,4]. The TST suffers from a number of limitations, the most serious being false-positive responses due to cross reactivity caused either by infection with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), or by bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination [6,7].During past few years, Quantiferon-TB Gold test (QFT-G), an in-vitro whole-blood interferon (IFN-c) assay based on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) specific antigens [i.e early secreted antigenic target 6 (ESAT-6) and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10),] has been extensively evaluated for TB diagnosis. The present study was designed to investigate the utility of Quantiferon TB gold (QFT-G) and Tuberculin skin test (TST) for diagnosis of latent TB infection (LTBI) in high crowding TB endemic zone of Nagpur, India and their comparison with associated risk factors
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