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 - Grammatikos, Georgios A1 - Lange, Christian A1 - Susser, Simon A1 - Schwendy, Susanne A1 - Dikopoulos, Nektarios A1 - Buggisch, Peter A1 - Encke, Jens A1 - Teuber, Gerlinde A1 - Goeser, Tobias A1 - Thimme, Robert A1 - Klinker, Hartwig A1 - Boecher, Wulf O. A1 - Schulte-Frohlinde, Ewert A1 - Penna-Martinez, Marissa A1 - Badenhoop, Klaus A1 - Zeuzem, Stefan A1 - Berg, Thomas A1 - Sarrazin, Christoph T1 - Vitamin D Levels Vary during Antiviral Treatment but Are Unable to Predict Treatment Outcome in HCV Genotype 1 Infected Patients JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Background: Different parameters have been determined for prediction of treatment outcome in hepatitis c virus genotype 1 infected patients undergoing pegylated interferon, ribavirin combination therapy. Results on the importance of vitamin D levels are conflicting. In the present study, a comprehensive analysis of vitamin D levels before and during therapy together with single nucleotide polymorphisms involved in vitamin D metabolism in the context of other known treatment predictors has been performed. Methods: In a well characterized prospective cohort of 398 genotype 1 infected patients treated with pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin for 24-72 weeks (INDIV-2 study) 25-OH-vitamin D levels and different single nucleotide polymorphisms were analyzed together with known biochemical parameters for a correlation with virologic treatment outcome. Results: Fluctuations of more than 5 (10) ng/ml in 25-OH-vitamin D-levels have been observed in 66 (39) % of patients during the course of antiviral therapy and neither pretreatment nor under treatment 25-OH-vitamin D-levels were associated with treatment outcome. The DHCR7-TT-polymorphism within the 7-dehydrocholesterol-reductase showed a significant association (P = 0.031) to sustained viral response in univariate analysis. Among numerous further parameters analyzed we found that age (OR = 1.028, CI = 1.002-1.056, P = 0.035), cholesterol (OR = 0.983, CI = 0.975-0.991, P<0.001), ferritin (OR = 1.002, CI = 1.000-1.004, P = 0.033), gGT (OR = 1.467, CI = 1.073-2.006, P = 0.016) and IL28B-genotype (OR = 2.442, CI = 1.271-4.695, P = 0.007) constituted the strongest predictors of treatment response. Conclusions: While 25-OH-vitamin D-levels levels show considerable variations during the long-lasting course of antiviral therapy they do not show any significant association to treatment outcome in genotype 1 infected patients. KW - chronic Hepatitis C KW - sustained virological response KW - common genetic determinants KW - D serum-levels KW - IL28B polymorphisms KW - interferon alpha KW - viral clearance KW - virus infection KW - severe fibrosis KW - D insufficiency Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117310 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Graf, Christiana A1 - Mondorf, Antonia A1 - Knop, Viola A1 - Peiffer, Kai-Henrik A1 - Dietz, Julia A1 - Friess, Julia A1 - Wedemeyer, Heiner A1 - Buggisch, Peter A1 - Mauss, Stefan A1 - Berg, Thomas A1 - Rausch, Michael A1 - Sprinzl, Martin A1 - Klinker, Hartwig A1 - Hinrichsen, Holger A1 - Bronowicki, Jean-Pierre A1 - Haag, Sebastian A1 - Hüppe, Dietrich A1 - Lutz, Thomas A1 - Poynard, Thierry A1 - Zeuzem, Stefan A1 - Friedrich-Rust, Mireen A1 - Sarrazin, Christoph A1 - Vermehren, Johannes T1 - Evaluation of point shear wave elastography using acoustic radiation force impulse imaging for longitudinal fibrosis assessment in patients with HBeAg-Negative HBV infection JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Background: Accurate assessment of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic HBeAg-negative Hepatitis B is of crucial importance not only to predict the long-term clinical course, but also to evaluate antiviral therapy indication. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the utility of point shear wave elastography (pSWE) for longitudinal non-invasive fibrosis assessment in a large cohort of untreated patients with chronic HBeAg-negative hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Methods: 407 consecutive patients with HBeAg-negative HBV infection who underwent pSWE, transient elastography (TE) as well as laboratory fibrosis markers, including fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4), aspartate to platelet ratio index (APRI) and FibroTest, on the same day were prospectively followed up for six years. Patients were classified into one of the three groups: inactive carriers (IC; HBV-DNA <2000 IU/mL and ALT <40 U/L); grey zone group 1 (GZ-1; HBV DNA <2000 IU/mL and ALT >40 U/L); grey zone group 2 (GZ-2; HBV-DNA >2000 IU/mL and ALT <40 U/L). Results: pSWE results were significantly correlated with TE (r = 0.29, p < 0.001) and APRI (r = 0.17; p = 0.005). Median pSWE values did not differ between IC, GZ-1 and GZ-2 patients (p = 0.82, p = 0.17, p = 0.34). During six years of follow-up, median pSWE and TE values did not differ significantly over time (TE: p = 0.27; pSWE: p = 0.05). Conclusion: Our data indicate that pSWE could be useful for non-invasive fibrosis assessment and follow-up in patients with HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infection. KW - HBV KW - non-invasive fibrosis assessment KW - point shear wave elastography KW - acoustic radiation force impulse imaging KW - transient elastography KW - fibrotest KW - APRI KW - FIB-4 Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-193916 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 8 IS - 12 ER -