Ricerc@Sapienza

The development of active tuberculosis (TB) is increased in immunocompromised patients and is closely related to determinants for disease reactivation or newly acquired TB infection. A targeted detection of latent tuberculosis (LTBI) in these high-risk groups should be performed especially if preventive treatment is planned. Despite the better diagnostic accuracy of interferon-gamma immuno assays (IGRAs) over the TST, the performance of immunodiagnostic tests is highly variable among different groups of immunocompromised people.
Clinical investigations about the presence and extent of antigen-specific T-cell immunity are becoming more important and the need for antigen-specific functional T-cell assays that can be performed in routine diagnostic clinical laboratories is wideranging and significant.
A strategy incorporating different immunological assays and the analysis of TB epidemiological and clinical risk factors, may be capable of generating novel immune profiles to improve LTBI detection at screening and to identify those at risk of developing TB.