Clinical application of interferon-γ release assay

OBJECTIVE To explore the clinical value of interferon-γ release assay(IGRA) in the diagnosis of tuberculosis so as to raise the diagnostic rate of tuberculosis.METHODS Totally 348 cases of TB patients and non-TB patients were divided based on the clinical diagnosis,all patients were conducted sputum smear and tuberculin skin test(TST) and IGRA testing conventionally.The clinical values of IGRA were concluded.RESULTS For the diagnosis of tuberculosis,the IGRA had the higher sensitivity(71.0% and 51.3%) and specificity(81.2% and 66.9%) when compared with TST;for the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy,the IGRA had the higher sensitivity(72.9% and 35.6%) and specificity(84.6% and 61.5%) when compared with TST;for the diagnosis of non-pulmonary tuberculosis,the IGRA had the higher sensitivity(68.0% and 36.0%) and specificity(85.7% and 57.1%) when compared with TST,all the P value were less than 0.05.What′s more,the IGRA had a higher positive rate than did TST for smear-negative TB patients(66.7% and 43.4%,P0.05).The responses of IGRA may indicated the effect of anti-tuberculosis treatment.CONCLUSION IGRA can raise the detection rate of tuberculosis.It could be used as an important auxiliary diagnostic method for the diagnosis of tuberculosis,especially in the patients with tuberculous pleurisy or non-pulmonary tuberculosis.