The Prevalence of Latent Pulmonary Tuberculosis (Ltb) in a Normal and a High Risk Population Group

Systematic review of latent tuberculosis infection research to inform programmatic management in Ireland

“…Ni Cheallaigh et al [28] reported the proportion of people living with HIV who had a positive test when screened using an IGRA as 18% when T-SPOT was used and 11% when QuantiFERON was used (sample sizes 256 and 247, respectively). When a TST was used among PLWHIV, the proportion of patients diagnosed with LTBI was 10% in the study by Ni Cheallaigh et al [28] and 11% in the study by Ali et al [29] (sample sizes 93 and 331 respectively). However, the risk of bias in the study by Ali et al [29] was high.…”

“…When a TST was used among PLWHIV, the proportion of patients diagnosed with LTBI was 10% in the study by Ni Cheallaigh et al [28] and 11% in the study by Ali et al [29] (sample sizes 93 and 331 respectively). However, the risk of bias in the study by Ali et al [29] was high. Ni Cheallaigh et al [28] reported that all patients who were diagnosed with LTBI were offered treatment.…”

“…The included studies described LTBI screening or treatment performed in one of five contexts (Table 3), pre-biologic or other immunosuppressive treatment screening (11 studies [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]), people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWHIV) (two studies [28,29]), TB case contacts or prior to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination (nine studies [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]), other vulnerable populations (two studies in asylum seekers [39,40]) or health care workers (five studies [29,[41][42][43][44]). Most studies (19/28) were retrospective cohort reviews, seven were prospective cohort reviews and for one study, the design was unclear.…”

“…Jordan et al [26] reported the cost of treating four patients with LTBI diagnosed using an IGRA as €1652 and 21 patients diagnosed using a TST as €6174, although the methodology used to make these cost estimates is unclear. Gnanasekaran et al [17] Retrospective Secondary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 39) O'Flynn et al [18] Retrospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 70) Awan et al [19] Prospective Secondary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 25) O'Flynn et al [20] Prospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 109) Hurley et al [21] Retrospective Tertiary centre Pre-organ transplantation screening (n = 101) Safwat et al [22] Retrospective Secondary centre Pre-biologic screening (43% of cohort) (n = 78) Haroon et al [23] Prospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 132) O'Flynn [24] Unclear Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 188) Martin et al [25] Prospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 150) Jordan et al [26] Retrospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with IA (n = 63) Kelly et al [27] Retrospective Tertiary centre Pre-biologic screening in patients with psoriasis (n = 101) Ní Cheallaigh et al [28] Prospective Tertiary centre People living with HIV (n = 256) Ali et al [29] Retrospective Tertiary centre PLWHIV (n = 331), Occupational screening of new entrant health care workers (n = 2410) Higgins et al [30] Retrospective PHD TB outbreak (6 cases) in the community (n = 268) Glynn et al [31] Prospective PHD Contact tracing of 39 sporadic TB cases (n = 701) O'Donovan et al [32] Prospective PHD TB outbreak (6 cases) in university students (n = 71) O'Meara et al [33] Retrospective PHD TB outbreak (3 cases) in a primary school (n = 307) O'Sullivan et al [34] Retrospective PHD TB outbreak (13 cases) in a secondary school (n = 1200) Bambury et al [35] Retrospective PHD Contact tracing of 118 sporadic TB cases (n = 1082) Gaensbaeur et al [36] Prospective PHD TB outbreak in two creches (n = 268) Hennessy [37] Retrospective PHD Children tuberculin skin tested before BCG (1854) Tam et al [38] Retrospective Tertiary centre TB-related referrals to a specialist paediatric clinic (n = 13) Millar et al [39] Ret...…”

“…No study reported on the proportion of patients completing LTBI treatment in this cohort. High Glynn et al [31] High O'Donovan et al [32] High O'Meara et al [33] Low O'Sullivan et al [34] High Bambury et al [35] High Gaensbaeur et al [36] Moderate Hennessy [37] High Tam et al [38] N/a N/a Studies evaluating latent TB infection screening in vulnerable population groups Millar et al [39] High Doyle et al [40] Moderate Studies evaluating latent TB infection screening in health care workers Ali et al [29] High Smyth et al [41] High Kelly et al [42] High Power et al [43] High Arya et al [44] N/a N/a…”