BACKGROUND When a test for diagnosis of infectious diseases is introduced in a resource-limited setting, monitoring quality is a major concern. An optimized design of experiment and statistical models are required for this assessment. METHODS Interferon-gamma release assay to detect tuberculosis (TB) infection from whole blood was tested in Hanoi, Viet Nam. Balanced incomplete block design (B...

Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) vaccination is used routinely in most of countries, especially developing one. The efficacy of the BCG vaccination generally decreases with time. The tuberculin skin test (TST) is a most popular diagnostic test for suspicion of tuberculosis (TB) in children till now, but it has many false positives. The interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) is more specific...

OBJECTIVE To assess the 2012 served available market for tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics in China in the sector served by the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the hospital sector in China, including both designated TB hospitals and general hospitals. DESIGN Test volumes and unit costs were assessed for tuberculin skin tests, interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs), smea...

Tuberculosis is still one of the major global public health threats. Countries with low incidence must focus on exhausting the reservoir of future cases by preventing reactivation. Therefore, it is important to identify and effectively treat those individuals who have latent tuberculosis infection and who may develop active disease. The tuberculin skin test has been the standard for detection o...

NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) guidelines for new entrant tuberculosis (TB) screening recommend chest x ray (CXR) for immigrants from countries with TB incidence >40/10(5), and tuberculin skin test (TST) for people with normal CXR from very high TB prevalence countries. A revised screening policy using first-line QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) in high risk immigrants wa...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world's major health burdens with 9.6 million new infections globally. Though considerable progress has been made in reduction of TB incidence and mortality, there is a continuous need for lower cost, simpler and more robust means of diagnosis. One method that may fulfil these requirements is in the area of breath analysis. In this study we analysed the brea...

Interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are the preferred diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) infection in at-risk populations in developed countries. However, IGRAs have high false-negative rates in patients with TB disease. Population-based studies assessing the factors associated with negative IGRA results in TB patients have not been performed. Using statewide TB surveillance data of culture-...

Background: Radioactive contamination in soil arises due to various activities of human being, such as nuclear energy generation, use of radioisotopes in industrial applications, science, technology, medicine and release of radiation in nuclear weapon tests. Materials and Methods: The two districts (Peshawar and Nowshera) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan were selected for the study of anthropoge...