Maintenance of Sensitivity of the T-SPOT.TB Assay after Overnight Storage of Blood Samples, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Background. T-SPOT.TB is an interferon gamma release assay for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The requirement to process within 8 hours is constraining, deters use, and leads to invalid results. Addition of T Cell Xtend reagent may allow delayed processing, but has not been extensively field tested. Design. Consecutive AFB smear positive adult tuberculosis patients were prospectively recruited in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Patients provided a medical history, 1–3 sputum samples for culture and 1 blood sample which was transported to the laboratory under temperature-controlled conditions. After overnight storage, 25 μL of T Cell Xtend reagent was added per mL of blood, and the sample was tested using T-SPOT.TB. Results. 143 patients were enrolled: 57 patients were excluded because temperature control was not maintained, 19 patients were excluded due to red blood cell contamination, and one did not provide a sputum sample for culture. Among 66 evaluable patients, overall agreement between T-SPOT.TB and culture was 95.4% (95%CI; 87.1–99.0%) with Kappa value 0.548. Sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB when using T Cell Xtend reagent was 96.8% (95%CI; 88.8–99.6%). Conclusions. When T Cell Xtend reagent is added to specimens held overnight at recommended temperatures, T-SPOT.TB is as sensitive as the standard assay in patients with tuberculosis.