Risk of Tuberculosis Among Patients on Dialysis: The Predictive Value of Serial Interferon-Gamma Release Assay.
Patients on long-term dialysis are at high risk for tuberculosis (TB). Although latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is good target for TB eradication, interferon-gamma release assay-defined LTBI has a high proportion of negative conversion and lacks active TB correlation among patients on dialysis.Patients on long-term dialysis were screened in multiple centers in Taiwan. QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-GIT) was used to define LTBI and was performed thrice at 6-month intervals. The primary outcome was active TB diagnosed after LTBI screening. The incidence and predictive value of QFT-GIT were analyzed.The 940 dialysis patients enrolled had an average age of 59.3 years. The initial QFT-GIT results were positive in 193, including 49.6% with persistent positive results on second check. In an average follow-up period of 3 years, 7 patients had TB. Three (319.1 per 100,000 person-yrs) and 4 (141.8 per 100,000 person-yrs) of them were prevalent and incident TB cases, respectively. Persistent positive QFT-GIT for 2 and 3 times correlated with increased hazard ratio for TB (14.44 and 20.29, respectively) compared with a single positive result (hazard ratio 10.38). Among those with 3 positive QFT-GIT results, TB development rate was 4.5% and incidence rate was 1352.3 per 100,000 person-years. In contrast, none of the incident TB occurred in those with initial positive and then negative conversion of QFT-GIT.In an area of intermediate TB incidence, dialysis patients have high TB risk. LTBI status is a good predictor of TB development, especially for those with more than 1 positive result. After excluding prevalent TB cases, serial follow-up of LTBI may narrow the target population to reduce treatment costs.
From the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine (C-CS), College of Medicine, National Taiwan University; Department of Traumatology (C-CS, J-SC); Department of Internal Medicine (C-CS, C-LH, V-CW, J-YW, C-JY, L-NL), National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei City; Department of Internal Medicine (Y-FW), E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung City; Department of Surgery (C-YL, J-SC), National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei City; Division of Nephrology (H-HL), Department of Internal Medicine, Hsin-Jen Hospital, New Taipei City; Department of Internal Medicine (F-JY), National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun-Lin branch, Yun-Lin County; College of Public Health (H-HL), National Taiwan University; and Department of Laboratory Medicine (L-NL), National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei City, Taipei, Taiwan.
Chin-Chung
CC
Shu
Chia-Lin
CL
Hsu
Yu-Feng
YF
Wei
Chih-Yuan
CY
Lee
Hung-Hsiang
HH
Liou
Vin-Cent
VC
Wu
Feng-Jung
FJ
Yang
Hsien-Ho
HH
Lin
Jann-Yuan
JY
Wang
Jin-Shing
JS
Chen
Chong-Jen
CJ
Yu
Li-Na
LN
Lee
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D059425:Interferon-gamma Release Tests / Q000379:methods*; D055985:Latent Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology