Tuberculosis diagnosis

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Main article: Tuberculosis

A complete medical evaluation for tuberculosis (TB) must includes a medical history, a physical examination and a chest X-ray. It may include a tuberculin skin test, other scans and X-rays, surgical biopsy, microbiologic smears and cultures.

Contents 1 Medical history 2 Physical examination 3 Chest X-ray 4 Abreugraphy 5 Laboratory 6 Microbiological studies 7 Full blood count 8 Tuberculin skin test 8.1 Mantoux skin test 8.2 Heaf test 9 CDC classification of tuberculin reaction 10 BCG vaccine and tuberculin skin test 11 Contact screening 12 Tuberculosis classification system used in the US 13 Notes 14 References

[edit] Medical history

The medical history includes obtaining the symptoms of pulmonary TB: productive, prolonged cough of three or more weeks, chest pain, and hemoptysis. Systemic symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss, and easy fatigability. Other parts of the medical history include prior TB exposure, infection or disease; past TB treatment; demographic risk factors for TB; and medical conditions that increase risk for TB disease such as HIV infection.

Tuberculosis should be suspected when a persistent respiratory illness in an otherwise healthy individual does not respond to regular antibiotics.

[edit] Physical examination

A physical examination is done to assess the patient's general health and find other factors which may affect the TB treatment plan. It cannot be used to confirm or rule out TB.

[edit] Chest X-ray

In active pulmonary TB, infiltrates or consolidations and/or cavities are often seen in the upper lungs with or without mediastinal or hilar lymphadenopathy or pleural effusions ( tuberculous pleurisy). However, lesions may appear anywhere in the lungs. In disseminated TB a pattern of many tiny nodules throughout the lung fields is common - the so called milliary TB. In HIV and other immunosuppressed persons, any abnormality may indicate TB or the chest X-ray may even appear entirely normal.

Abnormalities on chest radiographs may be suggestive of, but are never diagnostic of, TB. However, chest radiographs may be used to rule out the possibility of pulmonary TB in a person who has a positive reaction to the tuberculin skin test and no symptoms of disease.

See Tuberculosis radiology for more information.

[edit] Abreugraphy

A variant of the chest X-Ray, abreugraphy (from the name of its inventor, Dr. Manuel Dias de Abreu) was a small radiographic image, also called miniature mass radiography (MMR) or miniature chest radiograph. Though its resolution is limited (it doesn't allow the diagnosis of lung cancer, for example) it is sufficiently accurate for diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Much less expensive than traditional X-Ray, MMR was quickly adopted and extensively utilized in some countries, in the 1950s. For example, in Brazil and in Japan, tuberculosis prevention laws went into effect, obligating ca. 60% of the population to undergo MMR screening.

The procedure went out of favor, as the incidence of tuberculosis dramatically decreased, but is still used in certain situations, such as the screening of prisioners and immigration applicants..

[edit] Laboratory

Mycobacterium tuberculosis produces the antigens early secretory antigen target 6 (ESAT-6) and culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10). These antigens are not present in non-tuberculous mycobacteria, nor in BCG vaccine.

The blood tests QuantiFERON-TB Gold and T-SPOT.TB use these antigens to detect people with tuberculosis. Lymphocytes from the patient's blood are cultured with the antigens. If the patient has been exposed to tuberculosis before, T lymphocytes produce interferon γ in response. The test then uses ELISA to detect the interferon γ.

QuantiFERON-TB Gold quantifies the amount of interferon γ when whole blood is exposed to the antigens. T-SPOT.TB counts the number of activated T lymphocytes. These tests are called interferon γ tests and are not equivalent.^[1]

Guidelines for the use of the FDA approved QuantiFERON-TB Gold were released by the CDC in December 2005.

The enzyme linked immunospot (ELISPOT) blood test is another blood test available in the UK that may replace the skin test for diagnosis. PMID 14586040

[edit] Microbiological studies

Sputum smears and cultures should be done for acid-fast bacilli if the patient is producing sputum. The preferred method for this is fluorescence microscopy (auramine-rhodamine staining), which is more sensitive than conventional Ziehl-Neelsen staining.^[2]

If no sputum is being produced,examination of gastric juice, a laryngeal swab, bronchoscopy or fine needle aspiration should be considered. Other mycobacteria are also acid-fast. Even if sputum smear is negative, tuberculosis must be considered and is only excluded after negative cultures. Further PCR or gene probe tests can distinguish M. tuberculosis from other mycobacteria. If this is not available, a culture of the AFB can distinguish the various forms of mycobacteria, although results from this may take four to eight weeks for a conclusive answer.

[edit] Full blood count

Although a full blood count is never diagnostic, normocytic anemia and lymphopenia are common. Neutrophilia is rarely found.

Urea and electrolytes are usually normal, although hypocalcemia and hyponatremia are possible in tuberculous meningoencephalitis due to SIADHS. In advanced disease, hypoalbuminemia and hyperglobulinemia may be present.

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate is usually raised.

[edit] Tuberculin skin test

Two tests are available: the Mantoux and Heaf tests.

[edit] Mantoux skin test

The Mantoux skin test is used in the United States and is endorsed by the American Thoracic Society and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

If a person has had a history of a positive tuberculin skin test, another skin test is not needed.

[edit] Heaf test

The Heaf test was used in the United Kingdom until 2005, and is graded on a four point scale. The Mantoux test is now used.

The equivalent Mantoux test positive levels done with 10 TU (0.1 ml 100 TU/ml, 1:1000) are

• 0–4 mm induration (Heaf 0 to 1)
• 5–14 mm induration (Heaf 2)
• Greater than 15 mm induration (Heaf 3 to 4)

[edit] CDC classification of tuberculin reaction

An induration (palpable raised hardened area of skin) of more than 5-15 mm (depending upon the person's risk factors) to 10 Mantoux units is considered a positive result, indicating TB infection.

• 5 mm or more is positive in
  • HIV-positive person
  • Recent contacts of TB case
  • Persons with nodular or fibrotic changes on CXR consistent with old healed TB
  • Patients with organ transplants and other immunosuppressed patients

• 10 mm or more is positive in
  • Recent arrivals (less than 5 years) from high-prevalent countries
  • Injection drug users
  • Residents and employees of high-risk congregate settings (e.g., prisons, nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, etc.)
  • Mycobacteriology lab personnel
  • Persons with clinical conditions that place them at high risk (e.g., diabetes, prolonged corticosteroid therapy, leukemia, end-stage renal disease, chronic malabsorption syndromes, low body weight, etc)
  • Children less than 4 years of age, or children and adolescents exposed to adults in high-risk categories

• 15 mm or more is positive in
  • Persons with no known risk factors for TB
  • (Note: Targeted skin testing programs should only be conducted among high-risk groups)

A tuberculin test conversion is defined as an increase of 10 mm or more within a 2-year period, regardless of age.

[edit] BCG vaccine and tuberculin skin test

There is disagreement on the use of the Mantoux test on people who have been immunised with BCG. The US recommendation is that in administering and interpreting the Mantoux test, previous BCG vaccination should be ignored; the UK recommendation is that interferon-γ tests should be used to help interpret positive tuberculin tests, also, the UK do not recommend serial tuberculin skin testing in people who have had BCG (a key part of the US strategy). In their guidelines on the use of Quantiferon Gold the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that whereas Quantiferon Gold is not affected by BCG inoculation tuberculin tests can be affected.^[3] In general the US approach is likely to result in more false positives and more unnecessary treatment with potentially toxic drugs; the UK approach in in theory, as sensitive and should also be more specific, because of the use of interferon-γ tests.

Under the US recommendations, latent TB infection (LTBI) diagnosis and treatment for LTBI is considered for any BCG-vaccinated person whose skin test is 10 mm or greater, if any of these circumstances are present:

• Was contact of another person with infectious TB
• Was born or has resided in a high TB prevalence country
• Is continually exposed to populations where TB prevalence is high.

[edit] Contact screening

When someone is diagnosed with tuberculosis, all their close contacts should be screened for TB with a tuberculin skin test or a chest x-ray or both.

[edit] Tuberculosis classification system used in the US

The current clinical classification system for TB (Class 0 to 5) is based on the pathogenesis of the disease.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has an additional TB classification (Class A, B1, or B2) for immigrants and refugees developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The (Class) B notification program is an important screening strategy to identify new arrivals who have a high risk for TB.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Medical Examination of Aliens (Refugees and Immigrants) - Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, CDC (website).
• Targeted Tuberculin Testing and Treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection 2000 ATS/CDC (fulltext,PDF format) (Updates 2001-2003).
• Lalvani A. ELISPOT Spotting latent infection: the path to better tuberculosis control. Thorax. 2003 Nov;58(11):916-8. Editorial. PMID 14586040