INTRODUCTION Healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and therefore are screened for tuberculosis (TB). Results of TB screenings with the Interferon-γ Release Assay (IGRA) in a French psychiatric hospital without a TB ward are described. METHODS At the Sainte-Anne Hospital, a referral centre for psychiatric patients throughout the municipal region of Paris, IG...

BACKGROUND The interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are increasingly being used as an alternative to the tuberculin skin test (TST). Although IGRAs may have better specificity and certain logistic advantages to the TST, their use may contribute to overtesting of low-prevalence populations if testing is not targeted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a risk factor questi...

BACKGROUND There is growing concern that interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) are being used off-label for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis (TB) disease in many high-burden settings, including India, where the background prevalence of latent TB infection is high. We analyzed the costs and consequences of using IGRAs for the diagnosis of active TB in India from the perspective of the Indian T...

BACKGROUND Tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) are both recommended for routine screening of healthcare workers (HCWs) in low tuberculosis (TB)-burden countries. More recently, based on scarce data, the World Health Organization strongly recommended that IGRA should not be used for occupational screening in high-burden settings. OBJECTIVE To assess the preva...

INTRODUCTION The risk of tuberculosis (TB) in healthcare personnel (HCP) is related to its incidence in the general population. Healthcare students involved in clinical training could be exposed to occupational risks similar to those that HCP face. The prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among undergraduate healthcare students with different working seniority in Italy was analyse...

We read with interest the study by Park et al 1 (see page 1461) in which they nicely evaluated serial interferong (IFNg )-release assays (IGRAs) in the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection in health-care workers. Health-care workers, although at high risk for MTB infection, are generally less likely to develop active or severe TB. Considering unexplained fl uctuations in IFNg...

The interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) is useful for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), however the rate of negative conversion is high, especially in dialysis patients. Few studies have focused on predicting persistently positive patients who are at high risk of tuberculosis reactivation. We screened dialysis patients, and used QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-GIT) to identify...

INTRODUCTION Results of systematic screening of healthcare workers (HCWs) for tuberculosis (TB) with the tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-γ release assays (IGRA) in a Portuguese hospital from 2007 to 2010 are reported. METHODS All HCWs are offered screening for TB. Screening is repeated depending on risk assessment. TST and QuantiFERON Gold In-Tube (QFT) are used simultaneously. X-ra...

question is whether or not TEs within or in the vicinity of asthma susceptible genes modulate the gene expression of these genes. This can be performed using cap-analysis gene expression, a method that specifically and unequivocally identifies the exact transcription start sites of genes [6]. Once the regulated retrotransposon transcriptome of healthy tissue is known, it can be compared with th...