Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Oct-Dec;10(4):284-8.
doi: 10.4103/1817-1737.157295.

The use of Quantiferon-TB gold in-tube test in screening latent tuberculosis among Saudi Arabia dialysis patients

Jamal Saleh Al Wakeel  1 , Ziyad Makoshi  2 , Mohammed Al Ghonaim  1 , Ali Al Harbi  3 , Abdulkareem Al Suwaida  1 , Farjah Algahtani  1 , Mogbil Al Hedaithy  1 , Sultan Almogairin  1 , Sami Abdullah  4
Affiliations

The use of Quantiferon-TB gold in-tube test in screening latent tuberculosis among Saudi Arabia dialysis patients

Jamal Saleh Al Wakeel et al. Ann Thorac Med. 2015 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Background and aim: Screening for tuberculosis (TB) is a key strategy for controlling infection. This study aimed to detect latent TB among dialysis patients.

Methods: This is a prospective study conducted in King Saud University, Riyadh involving hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients aged ≥18 years. Patients were screened for latent TB infection (LTBI) using both TBskin test (TST) and QuantiFERONTB Gold In-Tube test (QFT-GIT). All participants were followed-up clinically and radiologically every 3 months for 2 years.

Results: A total of 243 (181 HD and 62 PD) patients were included and 112(46.1%) were males. 45.3% showed positive QFT in HD patients with sensitivity of 91.7%, specificity of 71.4%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 19.5%, and negative predictive value (NPV) of 91.1%. TST results in HD showed that positive TST was 17.4%, sensitivity was 63.2%, specificity was 95.5%, PPV was 51.5%, and NPV was 91.1%. Five (8.1%) showed positive QFT in PD patients with sensitivity of 7.7%, specificity of 91.8%, PPV of 6.6%, and NPV of 92.3%. TST results in PD showed that positive TST was 9.8%, sensitivity was 35.7%, specificity was 97.9%, PPV was 55.8%, and NPV was 93.3%. Previous TB infection was significantly correlated with QFT only in HD patients, but significantly associated with TST in both HD and PD patients. Also in HD, QFT was significantly associated with TST (P = 0.043).

Conclusions: Due to high variability of QFT-GIT sensitivity, we recommend its use for its NPV and to use either TST or QFT in screening latent TB.

Keywords: Dialysis; King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology; King Saud University; quantiferon; tuberculosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None declared.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Rook GA, Dheda K, Zumla A. Immune responses to tuberculosis in developing countries: Implications for new vaccines. Nat Rev Immunol. 2005;5:661–7. - PubMed
    1. Lienhardt C. From exposure to disease: The role of environmental factors in susceptibility to and development of tuberculosis. Epidemiol Rev. 2001;23:288–301. - PubMed
    1. Meya DB, McAdam KP. The TB pandemic: An old problem seeking new solutions. J Intern Med. 2007;261:309–29. - PubMed
    1. al-Kassimi FA, Abdullah AK, al-Hajjaj MS, al-Orainey IO, Bamgboye EA, Chowdhury MN. Nationwide community survey of tuberculosis epidemiology in Saudi Arabia. Tuber Lung Dis. 1993;74:254–60. - PubMed
    1. Al-Hajoj SA. Tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia: Can we change the way we deal with the disease? J Infect Public Health. 2010;3:17–24. - PubMed