BACKGROUND An effective tuberculosis (TB) control programme requires early diagnosis and immediate initiation of treatment. Any delays in diagnosing TB not only impair a patient's prognosis, but also increase the risks of transmitting the disease within the community. Unfortunately, the most recent TB diagnostic tools still depend on high-infrastructure laboratories, making them poorly adapted ...

BACKGROUND HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are commonly associated. Identifying latent and asymptomatic tuberculosis infection in HIV-positive patients is important in preventing death and morbidity associated with active TB. METHODS Cross-sectional study of one time use of an interferon-gamma release assay (T-SPOT.TB - immunospot) to detect tuberculosis infection in patients in a UK inner city HIV...

CONTEXT Budgetary constraints in tuberculosis (TB) control programs require streamlining contact investigations without sacrificing disease control. OBJECTIVE To develop more efficient methods of TB contact investigation by creating a model of TB transmission using variables that best predict a positive tuberculin skin test among contacts of an active TB case. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS ...

SETTING Seven primary health clinics and a pulmonary disease specialty clinic in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil. OBJECTIVE To evaluate a commercial immunochromatographic test kit (ICT Tuberculosis; AMRAD-ICT; Sidney, Australia) employing five recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). DESIGN Serology test results were compared with duplica...

BACKGROUND South Africa has dual epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB). Nurse-focused training was combined with onsite mentoring for nurses to improve HIV and TB care. A pre-/postevaluation was conducted in 3 districts in South Africa to assess the effects of the course on clinical patient monitoring and integration of TB and HIV care. METHODS Two cross-sectio...

CONTEXT Contact investigations are routinely conducted by health departments throughout the United States for all cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) to identify secondary cases of active TB and latent TB infection and to initiate therapy as needed in these contacts. Little is known about the actual procedures followed, or the results. OBJECTIVES To evaluate contact investigations con...

SETTING The potential cost-effectiveness of improved diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) in resource-limited settings is unknown. OBJECTIVE To estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical new point-of-care TB diagnostic test in South Africa, Brazil and Kenya. DESIGN Decision-analysis model, adding four diagnostic interventions (sputum smear microscopy, new test, smear pl...

SETTING Twelve primary health care clinics in the South Peninsula Administration, Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the performance of FAST-PlaqueTB, a new phage-based test, for the rapid diagnosis of TB in individuals with no previous history of TB treatment presenting at primary health care clinics in Cape Town, South Africa. DESIGN A comparative study ...

BACKGROUND Thoracoscopic pleural biopsy is often required for rapid and confirmative diagnosis in patients with suspected pleural tuberculosis (PL-TB). However, this method is more invasive and costly than its alternatives. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical utility of the chest computed tomography (CT)-based bronchial aspirate (BA) TB-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in such patients. ...

Over 9 million new active tuberculosis (TB) cases emerge each year from an enormous pool of 2 billion individuals latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb.) worldwide. About 3 million new TB cases per year are unaccounted for, and 1.5 million die. TB, however, is generally curable if diagnosed correctly and in a timely manner. The current diagnostic methods for TB, including sta...