Prenatal purified protein derivative skin testing in a teaching clinic with a large Hispanic population

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a tuberculosis skin testing program in an outpatientobstetric teaching clinic. Study Design: This was a retrospective chart review and economic analysis. Medical records of all patients in the clinic (n = 1763) who were delivered of infants between 1993 and 1997 were reviewed. Fifty-fourpercent of the patients were Hispanic, and 38% were white. Epi Info 6.0 (χ 2 analysis) was used to calculate statistical significance. Results: Overall, 15.2% of the skin test results were positive. Positive test results were found in 31.3% ofAsians, 23.9% of Hispanics, 9.3% of black patients, and 4.1% of white patients. Hispanics had arelative risk for a positive purified protein derivative of 5.9 (3.9 to 8.8) compared with white patients.No chest x-ray films suggested active disease. Conclusion: Because the highest incidence of tuberculosis is in people of reproductive age, an effectivetuberculosis screening protocol during pregnancy would be valuable in reducing the incidence oftuberculosis nationally. Projected savings of this program were $57,628. (Am J Obstet Gynecol1999;180:1579-83.)