Role of Quantiferon Gold Assay in Detection and Follow-up of treatment of Latent Tuberculosis infection in some of acquired immune compromised patients

Abstract

This study was conducted on three groups of immune-compromised patients, divided into 18 patients receiving corticosteroids, 17 patients had uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and 15 patients had HIV associated with immune-suppression attended at Abassia chest hospital. The aim of the current study is to determine the role of Quantiferon Gold assay in detecting and follow-up of treatment of latent tuberculosis in some of acquired immune-compromised patients. All patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigations and radiological examination. Tuberculin skin test (TST) and Quantiferon (QFT-GIT) were performed for all patients, patients diagnosed as LTBI received preventive treatment and QFT-GIT was repeated . The current study reported that sensitivity of Quantiferon Gold in Tube Assay test was higher than TST however, difference was statistically insignificant. There was considerable number of individuals with TST negative/QFT-GIT test positive results in the immune-compromised patients in current study, so the use of both the TST and QFT-GIT could maximize the efficacy of screening for LTBI in immune-compromised patients The current study showed that there were Concordant results between both TST and QFT-GIT.