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Comparison of TST and IGRA in Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in a High TB-Burden Setting
Surendra K Sharma1, Richa Vashishtha1, L S Chauhan2
1Department of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Background:
There are currently two tests for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI); TST and IGRA. However, it is still unclear that which one of these tests performs better in high TB-burden settings.
Methods:
1511 household contacts of pulmonary TB patients were enrolled to compare the performance of TST and IGRA for LTBI. At baseline all participant underwent testing for IGRA [QuantiFERON-TB® Gold In-tube (QFT-GIT) assay] and TST [2 tuberculin unit (TU), purified protein derivative (PPD), RT23, Staten Serum Institute (SSI), Copenhagen, Denmark]. All the household contacts were followed-up for two years for incident TB cases.
Results:
Active TB was diagnosed in 76 household contacts at an incidence rate of 2.14 per 1000 person-years. Both, TST [Hazard Ratio (HR): 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72-1.79, p = 0.57], as well as QFT-GIT assay (HR: 1.66, 95% CI: 0.97-2.84, p = 0.06) results at baseline were not significantly associated with subsequent development of active TB among household contacts of pulmonary TB patients.
Conclusion:
Neither TST nor IGRA predicted subsequent development of active TB among household contacts of pulmonary TB patients during follow-up. However, keeping in view the cost, and other logistics, TST remains the most preferred method for LTBI diagnosis in resource-limited, high TB-burden settings.
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