Utility of quantiFERON-TB in-tube test for detection of latent tuberculosis (TB) in patients with hematological malignancies / Safaa Osama Algohary ; Supervised Amany Ali Elkholy , Hadir Ahmad Elmahalawy , Safaa Shawky Hassan

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology

Background: Patients with immunodeficiency, such as those suffering from hematological malignancies, have alteration in the T-cell response either by the malignancy itself or that caused by antineoplastic chemotherapy which lead to an impaired immune response that particularly promotes the progression from LTBI to active TB. T-cell-based Interferon-Gamma (IFN-Þ) Release Assays (IGRAs) constitute a promising alternative to TST for diagnosing tuberculosis infection with higher sensitivity and specificity. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of quantiFERON-TB gold IT test in detection of latent tuberculosis infection in patients with hematological malignancies presenting to the National cancer institute as new cases and correlating the results with the different clinical and laboratory findings of the patients as well as the overall survival. This was done in order to help preventing the spread of this infection. Subjects and methods: The study was conducted on 52 unselected cases of newly diagnosed cancer patients who presented to the outpatient clinic at National cancer institute, Cairo university. Patients{u2019} data included age, sex, clinical manifestations of infection, laboratory data of the patients, chest radiological findings and the outcome after induction therapy. Cases were tested for latent TB using the quantiFERON-TB Gold IT test. Results: As regard the QFT we found that 9 cases out of 52 (17.5%) were positive for latent TB and 43 out of 52 (82.7%) were negative for QFT

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