Agreement of Tuberculin Skin Test and QuantiFERON®®®®®-TB Gold-In-Tube for Screening Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Healthcare Workers in a University Hospital
Ar-karachaiphong K, MD1, Chaiear N, MD, MMedSc, PhD1,2, Reechaipichitkul W, MD2, Faksri K, PhD3, Lerdruampattana S, BNS4
Affiliation : 1 Division of Occupational Medicine, Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand 2 Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand 3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand 4 Occupational Health and Safety Office, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Background : Healthcare workers (HCWs) have a high occupational risk for tuberculosis (TB) infection. Common methods of
screening for TB infection are the tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs).
Objective : The aim of this study was to investigate the agreement of TST and IGRA (QuantiFERON®-TB Gold-In-Tube; QFT-GIT) as
applied to HCWs at a large university hospital in northeast of Thailand.
Materials and Methods : The study population included the preplacement medical records of new employees who were tested with
both TST and QFT-GIT, comprising 212 HCWs. Eligible for data analysis were 197 participants (calculated sample size was 196). SPSS
version19.0 was used to analyze Cohen’s kappa coefficient.
Results : The samples included 197 HCWs: 63 males (32.0%), 134 females (68.0%), 133 physicians (67.5%) and 64 nurses (32.5%).
The mean age was 25.6 years (SD = 3.12). Thirty-eight workers (19.3%) tested positive in the TST and 19 workers (9.6%) were
QFT-GIT-positive. The total agreement of TST and QFT-GIT was 88.3 (K = 0.54). Forty workers (20.3%) were positive in at least
one test.
Conclusion : This study showed moderate agreement of TST and QFT-GIT, which was consistent with the previous studies in high
tuberculosis-burden countries (TBC). The authors suggest that pre-placement HCWs in Thailand should be screened for TB infection
using the QFT-GIT method.
Keywords : Tuberculin skin test, QuantiFERON, IGRA, Healthcare workers, Tuberculosis
