PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yoshihiro Kobashi
AU  - Masaki Ikeda
AU  - Keiji Mouri
AU  - Yasushi Obase
AU  - Mikio Oka
TI  - Clinical evaluation of interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) in patients with nontuberculous mycobacterial disease
DP  - 2012 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P2715
VI  - 40
IP  - Suppl 56
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P2715.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P2715.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40
AB  - Objective: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of two IGRA (QuantiFERON-TB and T-SPOT.TB) in patients with nontuberculous mycoobacrerial (NTM) disease.Materials nad methods: The study consisted of 180 patients with NTM disease who satisfied the diagnostic criteria proposed by American Thoracic Society (ATS). Tuberculin skin test (TST) was also perfromed for these patients as much as possible.Results: The causative microorganism was Mycobacterium avium in 76 patients, M. intracellulare in 60, M. kansasii in 22, M. absccessus in 7, M. marinum in 7, others in 7, respectively. While the positive response rate for M. kansasii, M. marinum, and M. szulgai (30 patients) which possess the ESAT-6 and CFP-10 (Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific antigens) was 60% for TST, 33% for QFT, and 40% for T-SPOT.TB, the indeterminate response rate was 7% for QFT and 0% for T-SPOT.TB, respectively. On the other hand, while the positive response rate for M.avium and M.intracellulare etc. (150 patients) was 58% for TST, 7% for QFT. and 11% for T-SPOT.TB, the indeterminate response rate was 7% for QFT and 2% for T-SPOT.TB, respectively.Conclusions: Although IGRA may be a useful diagnostic method to differentiate TB disease and MAC disease, there are several prpblems to be resolved before it can be used as a diagnostic method for M. kansasii disease etc. We also would like to describe the results of QFT for M. kansasii disease in other hospitals in Japan.