The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
-
Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Feb 2011
Concordance of a positive tuberculin skin test and an interferon gamma release assay in bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccinated persons.
False-positive tuberculin skin test (TST) results due to prior bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination may lead to unnecessary treatment of presumed latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Recently approved interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) are more specific for LTBI in this group. ⋯ Patient characteristics and TST size can help determine those at highest risk for LTBI. A two-step procedure for LTBI screening should be considered for foreign-born persons with prior BCG vaccination and a positive TST.
-
Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Feb 2011
Multicenter StudyClinical characteristics and outcomes of H1N1-associated pneumonia among adults in South Korea.
Pneumonia has been reported to be the most life-threatening complication of influenza virus infection. ⋯ Deaths among adult patients with H1N1-associated pneumonia were not rare. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of a poor prognosis among H1N1-associated pneumonia patients with underlying malignancy or high PSI score.
-
Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Jan 2011
Smear-negative, culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis among patients with chronic cough in Cotonou, Benin.
The main tuberculosis (TB) centre in Benin, West Africa, where only 2% of adult pulmonary TB cases are sputum smear-negative, all other pulmonary cases being smear-positive. ⋯ These results show the relatively low input of culture in TB diagnosis among chronic coughers in Cotonou, Benin, and demonstrates that the expected number of non-smear-positive TB cases in Benin is probably much lower than the World Health Organization's current annual estimates.
-
Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Jan 2011
Tuberculosis 'retreatment others': profile and treatment outcomes in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
The Government of India's Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), Andhra Pradesh, South India. ⋯ 'Retreatment others' were predominantly sputum smear-negative TB, with significantly better treatment outcomes than among smear-positive retreatment patients. Future studies may assess the accuracy of the diagnoses and factors contributing to the occurrence of 'retreatment others'.
-
Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Jan 2011
Comparative StudyPerformance comparison of four methods for detecting multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains.
National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, Kuwait. ⋯ Although gMTBDR(+) accurately detected ∼ 88% of MDR-TB strains, some rpoB mutations were either missed or were outside the region of analysis of the gMTBDR(+) assay.