%0 Journal Article
%T Utility of Interferon Gamma Assays and Comparison with Tuberculin Skin Test in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
%A Arun C
%A Jyostna J
%A Shradha B
%A Sudha SD
%J International Journal of Rheumatology | Rheumatology Journals Indexed in PubMed
%D 2018
%R http://dx.doi.org/10.15226/2475-4676/3/2/00137
%X Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) are at higher risk of developing tuberculosis due to treatment with immunosuppressive drugs. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the agreement between the interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) and Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) in the Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients compared with the Controls. Methods: 42 consecutive RA patients diagnosed according to the 1987 ACR criteria were recruited for our study. 50 culture-positive Tuberculosis (TB) patients were enrolled and 50 Healthy Controls were taken for comparison. QFT-GIT assay, Elispot Plus assay and TST were performed on all the study participants. BCG vaccination status and current medication was noted. Result: The QFT-GIT and TST demonstrated 60.71 % agreement; k= 0.313 in patients with RA and 70.83 % agreement; k= 0.408 in healthy controls. The Elispot assay and TST demonstrated 53.57 % agreement; k= 0.308 in patients with RA and 79.17 % agreement; k= 0.565 in healthy controls. There is a moderate agreement in between the two IGRAs (78.5%; k=0.593). The sensitivity of TST and IGRA was equally low, but the specificity of IGRA was higher than TST. Conclusion: Our study showed low moderate agreement between the results of the interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) and the TST in RA patients, but in controls, moderate agreement was observed between the tests. Keywords: QFT-GIT, Elispot, TST, LTBI, RA
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