Latent infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (LTBI) is defined by the presence of M. tuberculosis-specific immunity in the absence of active tuberculosis. LTBI is detected using interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) or the tuberculin-skin-test (TST). In clinical practice, IGRAs and the TSTs have failed to distinguish between active tuberculosis and LTBI and their predictive value to identify ...

Tuberculosis (TB) is the second most common contagious disease, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). Besides a rare laryngeal tuberculosis, pulmonary tuberculosis is the only one contagious form of the disease, although it can affect any organ of the human body. TB represents a new challenge to the doctors because it appears with numerous chronic diseases, affects immunocompr...

Cutaneous tuberculosis can present as either primary or secondary infection, or it can be associated with systemic tuberculosis. It can present with unusual clinical and histological features causing delay in diagnosis and treatment. Tuberculosis verrucosa cutis occurs as a single verrucous lesion over exposed areas of the body along with inflammatory borders and discharging sinus. Here, we are...

A recently conducted study on tuberculosis contact investigations in six Sydney tuberculosis clinics - that together managed 59% of all tuberculosis cases in NSW from January 2000 to December 2009 - found that the prevalence of tuberculosis among contacts was comparable to other low-incidence settings. However, only 9% of contacts with latent tuberculosis infection received treatment. This pape...

The possibility that an unrelated disease process may alter the reaction to the trichinella skin test was uncovered in the course of an investigation on the incidence of trichinosis. A higher percentage of positive skin reactions to trichinella antigen (18.3 per cent) was obtained in 674 patients with active tuberculosis confined in 3 sanatoria, than was found in 335 patients without tuberculos...

Cutaneous tuberculosis (CTB) continues to be one of the most difficult diagnoses to make because of the wide variations in its clinical appearance, histopathology, immunology and treatment response.(1,2) The incidence of this disease has increased in the 21st century, due to a high incidence of HIV infection and multidrugresistant pulmonary tuberculosis.(3,4) Although CTB accounts for only 1.5%...

background tuberculosis is still a public health concern in iran. the main challenge in monitoring epidemiological status of tuberculosis is to estimate its incidence accurately. objectives we used a newly developed approach to estimate the incidence of tuberculosis in sistan, an endemic area in southeast of iran in 2012-13. patients and methods this cross-sectional study was conducted on schoo...

Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is a subclinical infection with Mycobacteria tuberculosis complex without any clinical, bacteriological or radiological evidence of manifest TB disease.1 LTBI results from contact with an infectious case of TB. It is characterised by the presence of mycobacterial T-cell responses, assessed by either the tuberculin skin test (TST) or more recently, interferon...

OBJECTIVES To present an updated review concerning new assays for diagnosing tuberculosis based on in vitro interferon-gamma production by host T cells, and compare them with tuberculin skin test. METHODS A literature review was carried out based on Medline and LILACS databases (2000-2008) searching for the following keywords: tuberculosis, interferon-gamma, quantiFERON, ELISPOT and T-SPOT.TB...