Bradshaw, L;
Davies, E;
Devine, M;
Flanagan, P;
Kelly, P;
O'Connor, K;
Drobniewski, F;
... Abubakar, I; + view all
(2011)
The role of the interferon gamma release assay in assessing recent tuberculosis transmission in a hospital incident.
PLoS One
, 6
(6)
, Article e20770. 10.1371/journal.pone.0020770.
![[thumbnail of 1354058.pdf]](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) Preview |
PDF
1354058.pdf Download (188kB) |
Abstract
In 2007, an extensive contact screening investigation into onward transmission of tuberculosis was instigated at a hospital in Northern Ireland following diagnosis of pulmonary multi-drug resistant TB in a healthcare worker. Interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) were used to test 333 patients and 98 staff. We investigated for evidence of onward transmission and recent infection based on analysis of clinical, demographic and IGRA data. We also described within-patient variability of IGRA results. Among patients and staff, increasing age of patients was the only factor associated with IGRA positivity. Greatest within-subject variability of IU/mL in serially-tested patients/staff was seen in those with a positive IGRA test and this did not correlate with increased exposure to the index case. IGRA positivity being largely explained by increasing age in patients and previous TB contact in staff lends weight to the conclusion that IGRA positivity reflected previous infection rather than recent transmission.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The role of the interferon gamma release assay in assessing recent tuberculosis transmission in a hospital incident. |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0020770 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020770 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2011 Bradshaw et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. PMCID: PMC3113857 The authors have no support or funding to report. |
| Keywords: | Adult, Demography, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Health Personnel, Hospitals, Humans, Immunoassay, Interferon-gamma, Latent Tuberculosis, Male, Middle Aged, Observer Variation, Odds Ratio, Tuberculosis |
| UCL classification: | UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1354058 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
