OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of positive tuberculin skin test (TST) reactions (10 mm or greater) among full-time employees of a provincial prison for women in Montreal. METHODS Participants underwent tuberculin skin testing and completed a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS Among 129 employees identified, 118 (91%) underwent tuberculin testing. Among 102 born in Quebec who co...

BACKGROUND Injection drug users are at increased risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and active tuberculosis (TB). The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of M. tuberculosis infection among injection drug users in Toronto, as indicated by a positive tuberculin skin test result. An additional objective was to identify predictors of a positive skin test result...

introduction :  working in hospital as a health care worker (hcw) predisposes the staffs to the risk of tuberculosis infection (tb). majority of hospitals around the world have developed protocols to prevent their personnel against tb. this study was carried out to determine the status of tb prevalence in the hcws using tuberculin skin test to establish an occupational health protection against...

BACKGROUND Bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, afflicts approximately 50 million cattle worldwide and is detected by the tuberculin skin test (TST). While it has long been recognized that purified protein derivative (PPD) tuberculin is composed of a mixture of M. bovis derived protein components, little is known about the quality, relative quantity and identity of the proteins t...

For nearly a century, the tuberculin skin test was the only tool available for the detection of latent tuberculosis infection. A recent breakthrough has been the development of T-cell-based interferon-gamma release assays. Current evidence suggests interferon-gamma release assays have higher specificity than the tuberculin skin test, better correlation with surrogate markers of exposure to Myco...

More than 36000 individuals living in rural Malawi were skin tested with antigens derived from 12 different species of environmental mycobacteria. Most were simultaneously tested with RT23 tuberculin, and all were followed up for both tuberculosis and leprosy incidence. Skin test results indicated widespread sensitivity to the environmental antigens, in particular to Mycobacterium scrofulaceum,...

Sir, A 53-year-old lady, hypertensive since 2003, was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in January 2006 and initiated on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). She has been on three exchanges per day with 2.5% dextrose solution. She used to achieve 1.5 L of ultrafiltration per day. Prior to this presentation, she had never suffered any mechanical or metabolic complication...