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IFNgamma and antibody responses among French nurses during a tuberculosis contact tracing investigation
J-L Herrmann1, N Simonney, A Bergeron
1Microbiology Department, Raymond Poincaré-Hospital, 104 Boulevard Raymond-Poincaré, 92380 Garches, France. jean-louis.herrmann@rpc.aphp.fr
Study:
A comparative study which compared PPD skin testing inserted according to the French Society of Pneumology's recommendations and interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) (QuantiFERON((R)) TB Gold In-tube, QF-TB-IT, Cellestis, Carnegie, Australia) was performed during a tuberculosis contact investigation in our hospital.
Patients:
Nineteen French health-care workers (HCWs) volunteered to participate. All of the HCW enrolled were BCG vaccinated and had a normal chest X-ray at entry.
Results:
Among the HCW, 68.4% were TST positive. By comparison, only 31.6% had a positive QF-TB-IT result. We took advantage of the negative tube and the corresponding plasma for antibody detection by ELISA. None were ELISA positive. Fourteen HCWs were followed up. None of the HCWs accepted a course of antiTB chemoprophylaxis. Despite the difficulty in establishing a trend in kinetics, we saw the complexity of interpretation of a dynamic T-cell response after contact with an index case.
Conclusion:
This initial and first French picture provides us with the observation that only 44% of TST-positive HCW were IGRA positive, and the IGRA test allowed the detection of LTBI in two TST negative HCWs.
