Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in United States Navy recruits using the tuberculin skin test or whole-blood interferon-gamma release assays.

BACKGROUND: Military personnel are at risk for acquiring Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection because of activities in close quarters and in regions with a high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB). Accurate tests are needed to avoid unnecessary treatment because of false-positive results and to avoid TB because of false-negative results and failure to diagnose and treat M. tuberculosis infection. We sought to estimate the specificity of the tuberculin skin test (TST) and 2 whole-blood interferon-gamma release assays (QuantiFERON-TB assay [QFT] and QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay [QFT-G]) and to identify factors associated with test discordance. METHODS: A cross-sectional comparison study was performed in which 856 US Navy recruits were tested for M. tuberculosis infection using the TST, QFT, and QFT-G. RESULTS: Among the study subjects, 5.1% of TSTs resulted in an induration > or = 10 mm, and 2.9% of TSTs resulted in an induration > or = 15 mm. Eleven percent of QFT results and 0.6% of QFT-G results were positive. Assuming recruits at low risk for M. tuberculosis exposure were not infected, estimates of TST specificity were 99.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 98.3%-99.9%) when a 15-mm cutoff value was used and 98.4% (95% CI, 97.3%-99.4%) when a 10-mm cutoff value was used. The estimated QFT specificity was 92.3% (95% CI, 90.0%-94.5%), and the estimated QFT-G specificity was 99.8% (95% CI, 99.5%-100%). Recruits who were born in countries with a high prevalence of TB were 26-40 times more likely to have discordant results involving a positive TST result and a negative QFT-G result than were recruits born in countries with a low prevalence of TB. Nineteen (50%) of 38 recruits with this type of discordant results had a TST induration > or = 15 mm. CONCLUSIONS: The QFT-G and TST are more specific than the QFT. No statistically significant difference in specificity between the QFT-G and TST was found using a 15-mm induration cutoff value. The discordant results observed among recruits with increased risk of M. tuberculosis infection may have been because of lower TST specificity or lower QFT-G sensitivity. Negative QFT-G results for recruits born in countries where TB is highly prevalent and whose TST induration was > or = 15 mm suggest that the QFT-G may be less sensitive than the TST. Additional studies are needed to determine the risk of TB when TST and QFT-G results are discordant.

Patterns of health care seeking of Gulf War registry members prior to deployment.

Following the Gulf War (GW), large numbers of individuals reported illness that they attributed to exposures encountered during the GW deployment. In response, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense established programs and registries for the evaluation and documentation of GW-related illness. We obtained registrants' medical records, which contained information on outpatient encounters during the 1-year period before their GW deployment, to determine whether registrants with multisymptom illness (cases) have patterns of predeployment health care seeking that are different from those of well registrants (controls). We found that subjects had significantly more predeployment outpatient visits than controls, but this varied by type of visit. Although the number of certain types of predeployment outpatient visits is significantly associated with subsequent multisymptom illness, these associations will have limited predictive value. These findings increase our understanding of multisymptom illness, especially its chronic nature, and justify doing additional studies.

Increased recombinant activated factor VII use and need for surgical reexploration following a switch from aprotinin to epsilon-aminocaproic acid in infant cardiac surgery.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether conversion from aprotinin to epsilon-aminocaproic acid (EACA) during infant cardiac surgery was associated with increased perioperative bleeding. DESIGN: Structured retrospective chart review. SETTING: University-affiliated large congenital cardiac surgery program. MEASUREMENTS: Records from 145 infants (age < 1 yr) receiving aprotinin as antifibrinolytic therapy for cardiac surgery between 6/1/2006 and 12/31/2006 were compared with a cohort of infants receiving EACA for cardiac surgery between 6/1/2008 and 12/31/2008. Sixty-eight infants received aprotinin and 77 infants received EACA. Measured indicators of perioperative bleeding included transfusion volumes, recombinant activated clotting factor VIIa (rFVIIa) administration, need for reexploration, and perioperative chest tube output. MAIN RESULTS: EACA treated patients received significantly more rFVIIa for uncontrolled bleeding (19/77 [25%] vs 3/68 [4%]; P < 0.001) and required surgical reexploration more frequently (21/77 [27%] vs 7/68 [10%]; P = 0.01]. Median (25th-75th percentiles) intraoperative platelet transfusion requirements were also increased after the switch to EACA (28 mL [0-58 mL] vs 0 mL [0 mL - 34.5 mL]), but this difference did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: Bleeding in infant cardiac surgery increased following the change in antifibrinolytic therapy from aprotinin to EACA. Given the potential for major harm, especially thrombotic complications, from rFVIIa use, prospective studies examining the safety of postcardiopulmonary bypass rFVIIa administration in infants are necessary before the routine off-label use may be recommended.