Immunocompromised patients with acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear-negative active pulmonary tuberculosis (pTB) often present with nonspecific clinical symptoms and findings. T-cell interferon-gamma release assays (TIGRA) performed on whole blood (using ELISA) or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (using enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT)) are more sensitive for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium ...

CTL responses against multiple hepatitis C virus (HCV) epitopes were detected in 7 of 29 (24.1%) healthy family members (HFM) persistently exposed to chronically HCV-infected patients (HCV-HFM). These precursor CTL were at very low or undetectable frequencies, as determined by limiting dilution analysis. However, when HCV-specific effector CD8+ T cells, freshly isolated from PBMC of HCV-HFM, we...

Enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) analysis is a sensitive technique for the detection and quantification of antigen-specific T cells (5,7) and also for the detection of various cytokines released by immune cells (2). It is used extensively to monitor peptide-specific T cell responses in vaccination protocols (3), melanoma patients (6), and adoptive cellular immunotherapy (9) because it can det...

Tuberculous pericarditis is a rare disease in developed countries. The diagnosis is difficult to set since there are no robust rapid tests, and culture of pericardial fluid for Mycobacterium tuberculosis is often negative. T-SPOT.TB, an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) test, measures the gamma interferon response of lymphocytes against tuberculosis antigens and can be performed on blood and b...

Current methods for diagnosing tuberculous pleurisy are poor. Some studies have explored the diagnostic value of a pleural effusion enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay, but its accuracy remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis of the existing evidence on the ability of the ELISPOT assay to diagnose tuberculous pleurisy. We systematically searched PubMed, Google Schola...

Adaptive immunity is an important component to clearance of intracellular pathogens. The ability to detect and quantify these responses in humans is an important diagnostic tool. The enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) is gaining popularity for its ability to identify cellular immune responses against microbial antigens, including immunosuppressed populations such as those with HIV infecti...

AIM to evaluate the diagnostic value of an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) with enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) method, T-SPOT.TB, in the diagnosis of pleural TB using pleural fluid mononuclear cells (PFMC). METHODS forty-eight subjects, presumed to have pleural TB with exudative pleural effusion by Light's criteria, dominated by mononuclear cells, had their pleural fluid specimen te...

We evaluated an enzyme-linked immunospot assay for interferon-gamma (T SPOT-TB) for rapid diagnosis of active tuberculosis (TB) in a disease-endemic area. From January to June 2005, patients whose clinical symptoms and radiographic findings were compatible with TB were recruited, and a blood sample was obtained for T SPOT-TB assay within 7 days of microbiologic studies. Sixty-five patients were...

A 24-year-old male with a history of spondyloarthropathy presented with high fever, cervical lymphadenopathy and generalized maculopapular rash. He was treated with prednisolone for chronic uveitis before being switched to sulfasalazine 3 weeks prior to admission. Laboratory findings revealed marked leukocytosis with frequent atypical lymphocytes. Sulfasalazine was discontinued and the etiology...