USE OF TWO COMMERCIAL INTERFERON-GAMMA ASSAYS FOR DETECTION OF TUBERCULOSIS INFECTION AMONG HIV/AIDS PATIENTS IN BULGARIA

OBJECTIVES: As the risk of progression from latent to active TB amongst immunosuppressed HIV/ AIDS patients is higher than that of the general population, it was very important to correctly identify those who had become infected. The sensitivity of the tuberculin skin test (TST) is very low in those patients and often false negative and/or anergic results are found. Two Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) are now available as commercial kits: the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In tube (Cellestis Ltd, Carnegie, Australia) and the T-SPOT.TB® (Oxford Immunotec, Oxford, UK). Research evidence suggests that IGRAs are more specific than TST.