Infection and Drug Resistance (Dec 2022)

Performance of Interferon-γ Release Assays in Patients with Mycobacterium kansasii Infection

  • Gao CH,
  • Zhang YA,
  • Wang MS

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 7727 – 7732

Abstract

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Chun-Hai Gao,1 Yan-An Zhang,2,3 Mao-Shui Wang3– 5 1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Linyi People’s Hospital, Linyi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shandong Public Health Clinical Center, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 3Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Respiratory Disease, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shandong Public Health Clinical Center, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yan-An Zhang, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Shandong Public Health Clinical Center, 46# Lishan Road, Jinan, 250103, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Mao-Shui Wang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital, 46# Lishan Road, Jinan, 250013, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: To evaluate the performance of interferon-γ release assays (IGRAs) in patients with Mycobacterium kansasii infection.Methods: Consecutive patients between May 2012 and June 2021 who had positive for mycobacterial cultures and who underwent IGRAs (T-SPOT.TB or QuantiFERON-TB Gold [QFT-G]) were included in the analysis. The IGRA positivity rates among patients with M. kansasii isolates were then calculated. If M. kansasii was identified in at least two sputum samples or in sterile samples, M. kansasii disease was then diagnosed. Otherwise, colonisation was considered.Results: During the study period, 54 patients with M. kansasii infection underwent T-SPOT.TB (n=48) or QFT-G (n=6) assays. The mean age was 44.1± 13.4 years, 85.2% (46/54) were male. Eight patients were diagnosed with M. kansasii disease and another 46 patients were considered to have colonisation. Twenty-four patients (T-SPOT.TB, n=23; QFT-G, n=1) were positive for IGRAs, for an overall rate of 44.4% (24/54; T-SPOT.TB, 47.9% [23/48]; QFT-G, 16.7% [1/6]) for IGRAs, 25.0% (2/8) for M. kansasii disease, and 47.8% (22/46) for colonisation.Conclusion: Positive IGRA rates were relatively low in patients with M. kansasii infection. More efforts are required to improve the performance of IGRAs in diagnosing M. kansasii infection.Keywords: interferon-gamma release assay, tuberculosis, M. kansasii, diagnosis, infection

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