TY  - JOUR
A1  - Meier, Johannes P.
A1  - Möbus, Selina
A1  - Heigl, Florian
A1  - Asbach-Nitzsche, Alexandra
A1  - Niller, Hans Helmut
A1  - Plentz, Annelie
A1  - Avsar, Korkut
A1  - Heiß-Neumann, Marion
A1  - Schaaf, Bernhard
A1  - Cassens, Uwe
A1  - Seese, Bernd
A1  - Teschner, Daniel
A1  - Handzhiev, Sabin
A1  - Graf, Uwe
A1  - Lübbert, Christoph
A1  - Steinmaurer, Monika
A1  - Kontogianni, Konstantina
A1  - Berg, Christoph
A1  - Maieron, Andreas
A1  - Blaas, Stefan H.
A1  - Wagner, Ralf
A1  - Deml, Ludwig
A1  - Barabas, Sascha
T1  - Performance of T-Track\(^®\) TB, a novel dual marker RT-qPCR-based whole-blood test for improved detection of active tuberculosis
JF  - Diagnostics
N2  - Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious disease. It remains a major health burden worldwide, in part due to misdiagnosis. Therefore, improved diagnostic tests allowing the faster and more reliable diagnosis of patients with active TB are urgently needed. This prospective study examined the performance of the new molecular whole-blood test T-Track\(^®\) TB, which relies on the combined evaluation of IFNG and CXCL10 mRNA levels, and compared it to that of the QuantiFERON\(^®\)-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Diagnostic accuracy and agreement analyses were conducted on the whole blood of 181 active TB patients and 163 non-TB controls. T-Track\(^®\) TB presented sensitivity of 94.9% and specificity of 93.8% for the detection of active TB vs. non-TB controls. In comparison, the QFT-Plus ELISA showed sensitivity of 84.3%. The sensitivity of T-Track\(^®\) TB was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that of QFT-Plus. The overall agreement of T-Track\(^®\) TB with QFT-Plus to diagnose active TB was 87.9%. Out of 21 samples with discordant results, 19 were correctly classified by T-Track\(^®\) TB while misclassified by QFT-Plus (T-Track\(^®\) TB-positive/QFT-Plus-negative), and two samples were misclassified by T-Track\(^®\) TB while correctly classified by QFT-Plus (T-Track\(^®\) TB-negative/QFT-Plus-positive). Our results demonstrate the excellent performance of the T-Track\(^®\) TB molecular assay and its suitability to accurately detect TB infection and discriminate active TB patients from non-infected controls.
KW  - tuberculosis
KW  - TB
KW  - active TB
KW  - infection detection
KW  - T-Track\(^®\) TB
KW  - QuantiFERON\(^®\)-TB Gold Plus
KW  - mRNA
KW  - RT-qPCR
KW  - CXCL10
KW  - IFNG
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-304113
SN  - 2075-4418
VL  - 13
IS  - 4
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Berg, Stefan
A1  - Schelling, Esther
A1  - Hailu, Elena
A1  - Firdessa, Rebuma
A1  - Gumi, Balako
A1  - Erenso, Girume
A1  - Gadisa, Endalamaw
A1  - Mengistu, Araya
A1  - Habtamu, Meseret
A1  - Hussein, Jemal
A1  - Kiros, Teklu
A1  - Bekele, Shiferaw
A1  - Mekonnen, Wondale
A1  - Derese, Yohannes
A1  - Zinsstag, Jakob
A1  - Ameni, Gobena
A1  - Gagneux, Sebastien
A1  - Robertson, Brian D
A1  - Tschopp, Rea
A1  - Hewinson, Glyn
A1  - Yamuah, Lawrence
A1  - Gordon, Stephen V
A1  - Aseffa, Abraham
T1  - Investigation of the high rates of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in Ethiopia reveals no single driving factor and minimal evidence for zoonotic transmission of Mycobacterium bovis infection
JF  - BMC Infectious Diseases
N2  - Background: 
Ethiopia, a high tuberculosis (TB) burden country, reports one of the highest incidence rates of extra-pulmonary TB dominated by cervical lymphadenitis (TBLN). Infection with Mycobacterium bovis has previously been excluded as the main reason for the high rate of extra-pulmonary TB in Ethiopia. 

Methods: 
Here we examined demographic and clinical characteristics of 953 pulmonary (PTB) and 1198 TBLN patients visiting 11 health facilities in distinct geographic areas of Ethiopia. Clinical characteristics were also correlated with genotypes of the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 

Results: 
No major patient or bacterial strain factor could be identified as being responsible for the high rate of TBLN, and there was no association with HIV infection. However, analysis of the demographic data of involved patients showed that having regular and direct contact with live animals was more associated with TBLN than with PTB, although no M. bovis was isolated from patients with TBLN. Among PTB patients, those infected with Lineage 4 reported "contact with other TB patient" more often than patients infected with Lineage 3 did (OR = 1.6, CI 95% 1.0-2.7; p = 0.064). High fever, in contrast to low and moderate fever, was significantly associated with Lineage 4 (OR = 2.3; p = 0.024). On the other hand, TBLN cases infected with Lineage 4 tended to get milder symptoms overall for the constitutional symptoms than those infected with Lineage 3. 

Conclusions: 
The study suggests a complex role for multiple interacting factors in the epidemiology of extra-pulmonary TB in Ethiopia, including factors that can only be derived from population-based studies, which may prove to be significant for TB control in Ethiopia.
KW  - zoonotic
KW  - Mycobacterium
KW  - Ethiopia
KW  - tuberculosis
KW  - Bovis
KW  - pulmonary
KW  - extrapulmonary
KW  - lymphadenitis
Y1  - 2015
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-143935
VL  - 15
IS  - 112
ER  -