A Feasibility Study for Diagnosis of Latent Tuberculosis Infection Using an IGRA Point-of-Care Platform in South Korea

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate ichroma™ IGRA-TB, a novel point-of-care platform for assaying IFN-γ release, and to compare it with QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) for identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We recruited 60 healthy subjects, and blood samples were obtained in QFT-GIT blood collection tubes. The blood collection tubes were incubated at 37℃, and culture supernatant was harvested after 18–24 hours. IFN-γ responses were assessed by the ichroma™ IGRA-TB cartridge and the QFT-GIT IFN-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Three active TB patients were recruited as a positive control for M. tb infection. RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the ichroma™ IGRA-TB test for differentiating between infected and non-infected individuals was 0.9706 (p<0.001). Inconsistent positivity between the two tests was found in three participants who showed weak positive IFN-γ responses (<1.0 IU/mL) with QFT-GIT. However, the two tests had excellent agreement (95.2%, κ=0.91, p<0.001), and a very strong positive correlation was observed between the IFN-γ values of both tests (r=0.91, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The diagnostic accuracy demonstrated in this study indicates that the ichroma™ IGRA-TB test could be used as a rapid diagnostic method for detecting latent TB infection. It may be particularly beneficial in resource-limited places that require cost-effective laboratory diagnostics.