Advantages of IFN-γ Release Assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Objective To evaluate the advantages of TB-IGRA and common laboratory methods to detect the Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Methods Seventy cases of intrapulmonary tuberculosis,33 cases of extrapulmonary tuberculosis,and 30 cases of routine physical examination were enrolled into the study.TB-IGRA,TST(PPD),tuberculosis antibody,sputum smear and sputum bacterial culture were used to test Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.The results were statistically analyzed and compared among the three groups.Results Among the patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection,the positive rate,sensitivity and Youden parameter(accuracy) of TB-IGRA were all higher than the routine methods,and the difference was statistically significant(P0.01).Meanwhile,the positive rate of TB-IGRA in normal control group was lower than that of routine methods,and the difference was statistically significant(P0.05).The results indicated that TB-IGRA had lower false positive rate,higher accuracy and the same accurate and effective detection efficiency for intrapulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.Conclusions TB-IGRA is a convenient,rapid,sensitive,accurate and effective method for the detection of intrapulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.It is worthy of being developed and adopted in clinical practice.