Activity Disease in SLE Patients Affected IFN-γ in the IGRA Results.

PURPOSE: Highly active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) causes a high risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection in SLE patients in Indonesia, a country in which the disease, especially extrapulmonary TB, is endemic. Interferon (IFN)-γ releasing assay (IGRA) can detect latent or previous TB infection. This study sought to determine latent TB infection and levels of IFN-γ, a key player in various inflammation and autoimmune disease, in patients with SLE and relate findings to disease activity. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This experimental study included 79 female subjects distributed into three groups of active SLE, quiescent SLE and healthy controls. We used SLE Disease Activity Index-2000 (SLEDAI-2K) scores to stratify the subjects. Each group underwent IGRA testing using the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus kit. RESULTS: We recruited 59 female patients with SLE. The patients had a median age and disease duration 30 and 5 years, respectively. Statistical analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test showed that active condition, high SLEDAI-2K score and immunosuppressive therapies affect IGRA results. Specifically, healthy controls (n=20) were most likely to have negative IGRA results (67.09%), whilst 27.27% of active cases (n=33) and 3.85% of quiescent cases (n=26) had indeterminate results (p=0.02). The number of immunosuppressant therapies was significantly negatively correlated with IFN-γ (p=0.004). No difference in IFN-γ concentration was detected amongst the active and other groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: High-activity SLE and immunosuppressive therapies cause dysregulation of the immune response, which, in turn, influences IGRA results. Thus, additional testing is necessary to detect TB infection in patients with SLE.

Adherence to isoniazid preventive therapy in Indonesian children: A quantitative and qualitative investigation.

BACKGROUND: It is recommended that young child contacts of sputum smear positive tuberculosis cases receive isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) but reported adherence is low and risk factors for poor adherence in children are largely unknown. METHODS: We prospectively determined rates of IPT adherence in children < 5 yrs in an Indonesian lung clinic. Possible risk factors for poor adherence, defined as ≤3 months prescription collection, were calculated using logistic regression. To further investigate adherence barriers in-depth interviews were conducted with caregivers of children with good and poor adherence. RESULTS: Eighty-two children eligible for IPT were included, 61 (74.4%) of which had poor adherence. High transport costs (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.1-10.2) and medication costs (OR 20.0, 95% CI 2.7-414.5) were significantly associated with poor adherence in univariate analysis. Access, medication barriers, disease and health service experience and caregiver TB and IPT knowledge and beliefs were found to be important determinants of adherence in qualitative analysis. CONCLUSION: Adherence to IPT in this setting in Indonesia is extremely low and may result from a combination of financial, knowledge, health service and medication related barriers. Successful reduction of childhood TB urgently requires evidence-based interventions that address poor adherence to IPT.

Sensitivity of the quantiferon-gold in-tube assay in sputum smear positive TB cases in Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: As part of a formal evaluation of the Quantiferon-Gold in-tube assay (QFT-IT) for latent TB infection we compared its sensitivity to the tuberculin skin test (TST) in confirmed adult TB cases in Indonesia. Smear-positive TB disease was used as a proxy gold standard for latent TB infection. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We compared the sensitivity of QFT-IT and TST in 98 sputum smear and chest x-ray positive TB cases and investigated risk factors for negative and discordant results in both tests. Both tests showed high sensitivity; (QFT-IT; 88.7%: TST; 94.9%), not significantly different from each other (p value 0.11). Very high sensitivity was seen when tests were combined (98.9%). There were no variables significantly associated with discordant results or with a negative TST. For QFT-IT which particular staff member collected blood was significantly associated with test positivity (p value 0.01). Study limitations include small sample size and lack of culture confirmation or HIV test results. CONCLUSIONS: The QFT-IT has similar sensitivity in Indonesian TB cases as in other locations. However, QFT-IT, like the TST cannot distinguish active TB disease from LTBI. In countries such as Indonesia, with high background rates of LTBI, test specificity for TB disease will likely be low. While our study was not designed to evaluate the QFT-IT in the diagnosis of active TB disease in TB suspects, the data suggest that a combination of TST and QFT-IT may prove useful for ruling out TB disease. Further research is required to explore the clinical role of QFT-IT in combination with other TB diagnostic tests.