New blood test brings greater accuracy to tuberculosis testing
Inside the Special Chemistry Laboratory at University Hospital, scientists and lab technicians are using a new method in testing for tuberculosis (TB). Rather than the traditional skin test, which can produce false positive results, the lab is using a highly accurate blood test.
University of Missouri Health Care’s Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences will host a seminar about this interferon-based blood test for tuberculosis from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5, in the MU Reynolds Alumni Center, Columns Ballroom A and B.
The test involves collecting a blood sample and testing to see how the sample reacts when placed in contact with the protein derivative of TB mycobacteria. If the blood cells respond, then tuberculosis exposure is likely.
“The blood test is highly accurate compared to the traditional skin test, where a positive reaction may be the result of other factors, in addition to tuberculosis,” said Ranadhir Mitra, PhD, scientific director of the pathology Special Chemistry Laboratory and associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences at the MU School of Medicine.
The traditional skin test is over 100 years old and requires an injection of a purified tuberculosis extract into the skin. The test requires two clinic visits 2 to 3 days apart. The first visit involves the injection, and the second allows a caregiver to read the inflammation the injection may produce.
Patients who are diagnosed with tuberculosis exposure then require treatment. In the case of a false positive reading, these patients may have to undergo unnecessary and expensive therapy.
The interferon-based tuberculosis blood test is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC reports one third of the world’s population is infected with TB, and each year there are almost 2 million TB-related deaths.
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