Comparison of tuberculin skin testing and T-SPOT.TB for diagnosis of latent and active tuberculosis.

The T-SPOT.TB test does not cross-react with Bacille Calmette-Guérin or most non-tuberculosis mycobacterium species, and is based on IFN-gamma responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific antigens. The objective of this study was to compare tuberculin skin test (TST) with T-SPOT.TB results used in the diagnosis of active tuberculosis (TB) as well as latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). A total of 136 subjects participated in three different groups (47 patients with active pulmonary TB, 47 healthy persons without M. tuberculosis exposure, and 42 hospital members with a history of close contact with active TB patients). The T-SPOT.TB sensitivity (83.0%) and the negative predictive value (NPV) (82.6%) in the diagnosis of active TB were significantly higher than those of TST. The sensitivity and NPV of the TST were 38.3 and 60.8%, respectively. The T-SPOT.TB specificity (80.9%) and positive predictive value (81.3%) were lower than those of TST (95.7 and 90.0%, respectively). The performance of T-SPOT.TB and TST for diagnosing LTBI was the same (54.8%). T-SPOT.TB was superior in terms of sensitivity (83.0%); TST detected only 18, whereas T-SPOT.TB test detected 39 out of 47 patients with active TB. T-SPOT.TB is thought to have better performance than TST due to false-negative results in diagnosing active TB. However, it is considered that large prospective longitudinal studies are needed for diagnosing LTBI.

[The comparison of nicotine replacement therapy and behavioral education in smoking cessation: a study of naturalistic follow-up]. / Sigarayi birakmada nikotin replasman tedavisi ve davranis egitimi yöntemlerinin karsilastirilmasi: dogal izlem çalismasi.

In this study, we aimed to compare quitting smoking rates after behavioral education (BE) and/or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). 610 patients applied between October 1999-April 2002 have been acknowledged and evaluated by a questionnaire including demographic variables, smoking history, smoking habits and attitudes, motivation; biochemical assay and spirometric measures were examined. One-year follow-up results and demographic variables of patients who recruited to treatment (n= 435) were analyzed by chi-square, Student-t test, one-way ANOVA and post-hoc tests. 375 (66.8 %) case were given NRT and BE; only BE (Fagerstrom < 6, not want to use of NRT, medical and economic reasons) was recommended to 186 (33.2 %) case. There was not difference between NRT and BE groups with regards to age, sex, packet year, smoking beginning age except Fagerstrom score. Smoking cessation rates for 1-year were 31.5 % in NRT group, 24.2 % in BE group, and 29.1 % in whole group (x(2)= 3.19, p> 0.05). Quitting rates were similar between age, sex, education, occupation, and complaint groups. Two groups were not statistically different with regards of smoking history and nicotine dependence. The most frequent side effect was skin reactions (7 %). The economical and medical burden of smoking increase as time goes on. According to our results, NRT and behavioral education are both efficient in smoking cessation.

[The correlation between the distant metastases and organ-specific symptoms in the patients with lung cancer]. / Akciger kanserli hastalarda uzak metastaz ile organa özgül semptomlarin iliskisi.

In this study, the correlation between distant metastases and metastatic organ-specific abnormalities in patients with lung cancer was evaluated. There were 197 patients who have lung cancer with distant metastases in this study. 141 (71.5%) of them were nonsmall cell lung cancer and 56 (28.5%) of them were small cell lung cancer. While one site of liver, brain and bone metastases were detected in 128 (64.9%) patients, remainders (69 patients, 35.1%) had surrenal, renal, pancreatic, skin, lung, thyroid, abdominal lymph node metastases. Organ-specific symptoms, findings on physical examination and abnormalities in laboratory data were detected in 121 (56.5%), 45 (21%) and 52 (24.2 %) patients, respectively. Sensitivity of predilection of organ-specific symptoms for bone, liver and brain metastases were 67%, 43% and 74% and specificity were 86%, 90% and 76%, respectively. We concluded that organ-specific abnormalities were not so effective to predict metastases in lung cancer. We considered that this result could be due to retrospective analysis and not included enough patients.