Mohamed El-Helaly1, Waseem Khan2, Aiman El-Saed3, Hanan H Balkhy4. 1. Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt. Electronic address: mhelaly72@gmail.com. 2. Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 3. Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt. 4. Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, National Guard Health Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, National Guard Health Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the agreement between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT-G) as pre-employment screening tests for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among healthcare workers. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 1412 healthcare workers who were screened for LTBI during the period from August 2009 to May 2011 at a tertiary-care hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The studied population was screened for LTBI using both TST and QFT-G simultaneously. The agreement between both tests was quantified using the Kappa coefficient (κ). RESULTS: Comparing the results of QFT-G with TST, the tests had a significant overall agreement of 73.7% (1040/1412; κ=0.33; p<0.01). Negative concordance comprised 60.1% of the results, and positive concordance comprised 13.5%. However, positive TST but negative QFT comprised 16.3% of the results, and negative TST but positive QFT-G comprised 10.1%. Concordance was significantly associated with young age, female gender, Saudi-born nationals, and early career but not job type (clinical versus non-clinical) nor status of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated 73.7% overall agreement between TST and QFT-G results among healthcare workers during pre-employment screening for LTBI. The results need to be confirmed in future studies before recommending QFT-G as a pre-employment screening test for LTBI.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the agreement between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT-G) as pre-employment screening tests for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among healthcare workers. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 1412 healthcare workers who were screened for LTBI during the period from August 2009 to May 2011 at a tertiary-care hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The studied population was screened for LTBI using both TST and QFT-G simultaneously. The agreement between both tests was quantified using the Kappa coefficient (κ). RESULTS: Comparing the results of QFT-G with TST, the tests had a significant overall agreement of 73.7% (1040/1412; κ=0.33; p<0.01). Negative concordance comprised 60.1% of the results, and positive concordance comprised 13.5%. However, positive TST but negative QFT comprised 16.3% of the results, and negative TST but positive QFT-G comprised 10.1%. Concordance was significantly associated with young age, female gender, Saudi-born nationals, and early career but not job type (clinical versus non-clinical) nor status of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated 73.7% overall agreement between TST and QFT-G results among healthcare workers during pre-employment screening for LTBI. The results need to be confirmed in future studies before recommending QFT-G as a pre-employment screening test for LTBI.
Authors: Zakeya A Bukhary; Soliman M Amer; Magdy M Emara; Mohammad E Abdalla; Sahar A Ali Journal: Ann Saudi Med Date: 2018 Mar-Apr Impact factor: 1.526
Authors: Hani S Almugti; Hussam M Alfaleh; Turki M Alshehri; Khaled Q Mokili; Abdul-Aziz M Al Qahtani; Hassan S Al Qahtani; Mohammed Z Alsayed; Mohammed A Al Asmari; Majed M Al Asiri; Mohammed A Al Amri; Ali F Al Fadhil; Bairam A Al Qahtani; Esmaeel S Al Bakrah; Humood A Shaikh; Mohammed G Al Shiq; Yahya A Al Shaik Journal: Cureus Date: 2022-09-13
Authors: Hanan H Balkhy; Kamel El Beltagy; Aiman El-Saed; Badr Aljasir; Abdulhakeem Althaqafi; Adel F Alothman; Mohammad Alshalaan; Hamdan Al-Jahdali Journal: Ann Thorac Med Date: 2016 Jul-Sep Impact factor: 2.219