ArticlePathogens & immunity2020
Conversion and Reversion Rates of Tuberculosis Screening Assays in Patients With Rheumatic Diseases and Negative Baseline Screening Under Long-Term Biologic Treatment.
Article in Pathogens & immunity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Dynamic tuberculosis infection pattern: high conversion and reversion among persons with type 2 diabetes in India.Public health action · 2026Article
- Beyond the Flare: A Case of Disseminated Tuberculosis and Thrombosis Masquerading as IBD Exacerbation.Clinical journal of gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Brazilian guidelines for the management of tuberculosis infection in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: is retesting in latent tuberculosis screening appropriate and Safe?Advances in rheumatology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Targeted Tuberculosis Surveillance Testing in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Is That the Best Way Forward?Crohn's & colitis 360 · 2021Article
- Infections in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the Era of Targeted Synthetic Therapies.Mediterranean journal of rheumatology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo determine the conversion and reversion rates of tuberculosis (TB) screening tests (Tuberculin Skin Test-TST, Interferon Gamma Release Assay-IGRA: T-SPOT.TB) during biologic treatment in patients with rheumatic diseases and negative baseline screening.
methodsThis was a long-term, longitudinal cohort study of 50 patients with rheumatic diseases and negative baseline TB screening (TST: < 5 mm, negative T-SPOT.TB) treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) or other non-TNFi biologics. Patients were rescreened at a mean time of 1.4 (first rescreening) and 6.9 (second rescreening) years from baseline, with both assays. The conversion (negative to positive) and reversion (positive to negative) rate was calculated for each TB screening test.
resultsFifty patients (mean age = 60 years) with various rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis: n = 24, spondyloarthropathies: n = 23, other: n = 3) were enrolled. During the first phase (baseline to first rescreening), all patients were treated with TNFi while during the second phase (first to second rescreening), TNFi (54%) and non-TNFi (46%) were used. Fifteen patients (30%) displayed conversion of at least 1 screening assay during follow-up (10 at the first and 5 at the second rescreening). This conversion rate was higher with TST (n = 11, 22% or 3.47/100 patient-years) compared to T-SPOT.TB (n = 4, 8% or 1.74/100 patient-years). Among the 10 converters at the first rescreening, 5 received isoniazid (INH) preventive therapy and 5 did not; an equal number of patients (3/5, 60%) reverted to negative with or without INH therapy. None of the patients developed active TB during follow-up (6.9 ± 1.0 years).
conclusionsApproximately one-third of patients with rheumatic diseases and negative baseline TB screening developed conversion of at least 1 screening test during long-term biologic treatment. This occurred most often with TST and was usually a transient event. These findings do not support routine serial TB retesting in biologic-treated patients with rheumatic diseases in the absence of TB risk factors.
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