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Tag Archives: Tuberculosis

TB testing: new approaches to old scourge

April 2018—Scratch the surface of TB testing, and things quickly get interesting. The standard skin reaction test, widely adopted by the early 1940s, is still in use today. The goal has remained steady as well: break the transmission cycle. “From the clinician perspective and the laboratory perspective, because of its infectious nature, we want to identify people with latent tuberculosis,” says Elitza Theel, PhD, lab director for the infectious disease serology laboratory, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Medical Laboratories.

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Latest TB testing guide set forth by ATS, CDC, IDSA

March 2017—Testing for latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and active tuberculosis disease remained relatively unchanged for many years. Screening for latent infection depended on an initial positive tuberculin skin test, and evidence for active TB required a positive culture for M. tuberculosis complex. New tests altered this picture in the past five years. For diagnosis of latent infection, interferon-gamma release assays have taken a major role. And nucleic acid amplification testing is becoming a mainstay for establishing a diagnosis of TB.

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TB or not TB? Newer assays settle in

March 2013—Though tuberculosis is primarily diagnosed and treated in the public health system, there’s a need for greater knowledge about TB in the private sector, says Sundari Mase, MD, MPH, of the CDC’s Field Services and Evaluation Branch, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. Among private physicians, she says, “there is little institutional knowledge about TB.” When Dr. Mase sees patients, often she’ll note diagnostic delays in recognizing TB, “delays that occur because physicians aren’t thinking about TB.”

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