Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Availability and use of molecular microbiological and immunological tests for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in Europe
PLoS ONE, Volume 9, No. 6, Article e99129, Year 2014
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Introduction: Currently only limited data exist regarding the availability and clinical use of molecular and immunological tests for tuberculosis (TB) in the European setting. Methods: Web-based survey of Paediatric-Tuberculosis- Network-European-Trialsgroup (ptbnet) and Tuberculosis-Network-European- Trialsgroup (TBnet) members conducted June to December 2013. Both networks comprise clinicians, microbiologists, epidemiologists and researchers predominately based in Europe. Results: 191 healthcare professionals from 31 European countries participated. Overall, 26.8% of respondents did not have access to the Xpert MTB/RIF assay; only 44.6% had access to the assay in-house. However, a substantial proportion had access to other commercial and/or non-commercial PCR-based assays for TB (68.8% and 31.8%, respectively). Only 6.4% did not have access to any PCR-based assays for TB. A large proportion of participants with access to the Xpert MTB/RIF assay had used it for the analysis of non-respiratory samples [pleural fluid: 36.5%, gastric aspirates: 34.7%, cerebrospinal fluid: 34.7%, stool samples: 4.3%, blood/serum: 2.6%, 'other samples' (which included biopsy/tissue samples, lymph node aspirates, joint aspirates and urine samples): 16.5%]. Regarding interferon-gamma release assays, a greater proportion of respondents had access to the QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay (84.7%) than to the T-SPOT.TB assay (52.2%). Conclusions: Both immunological and molecular TB tests are widely available across Europe. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay is more widely used than the T-SPOT.TB assay, which may reflect the difficulties of integrating an ELISPOT assay into the routine laboratory setting. Although Xpert MTB/RIF assays are optimised and solely licensed for the analysis of sputum samples, in clinical practice they are commonly used for non-respiratory samples. Further research is needed to establish how current molecular TB tests impact on patient care and outcome in the routine clinical setting. © 2014 Tebruegge et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC4055680/bin/pone.0099129.s001.docx
Authors & Co-Authors
Tebruegge, Marc O.
Unknown Affiliation
Ritz, Nicole
Unknown Affiliation
Koetz, Karsten
Unknown Affiliation
Noguera-Julián, Antoni Diez
Unknown Affiliation
Seddon, James Alexander
Unknown Affiliation
Welch, Steven B.
Unknown Affiliation
Tsolia, Maria N.
Unknown Affiliation
Kampmann, Beate B.
Unknown Affiliation
Statistics
Citations: 35
Authors: 8
Affiliations: 12
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0099129
e-ISSN:
19326203
Research Areas
Health System And Policy
Infectious Diseases
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative