Evaluation of Treatment Indications, Tuberculin Skin Test, and Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Vaccination Scars in the Cases of Latent Tuberculosis Infection Treatment

Özet

OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to evaluate the latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) treatment application and to investigate if thereis change between tuberculin skin test (TST) results according to bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) scar numbers after LTBI treatment withisoniazid (INH).MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were collected from the LTBI treatment files from the dispensary of 2006. The results were statisticallyevaluated.RESULTS: Latent tuberculosis infection was administered to 253 cases in 2006. The male/female case rate was 51/49. The age of mostpatients was under 15 years out of 14 cases. The mean age was 8.92±6.87 years (range, 0-84 years). One case had liver function testabnormality and INH was stopped in the first month of treatment. The completion rate of LTBI treatment was 95%. BCG vaccination ratewas 93%. Active tuberculosis did not develop during the LTBI treatment in our study. Of all the cases, 221 scar numbers and TST werefull. Of all cases 221 the scar numbers and TST value were full.TST of the 221 cases according to BCG vaccine scar numbers and indi-cations were compared pre- and post-treatment with INH. Indications for LTBI treatment in these cases were close contact with smear-positive active pulmonary tuberculosis cases (n=77, 35%), TST-positive children aged <15 years (n=138, 62%), and the other (n=6, 3%)immunosuppressed patient cases. After treatment with INH, TST values decreased in the TST-positive children aged <15 years with oneand 2 scars, with a statistically significant this result were found statistically significant (p<0.05).CONCLUSION: The age of patients in most cases with LTBI treatment was under 15 years. The treatment completion rate and BCG vac-cination rate were high. One case had liver function test abnormality. Active tuberculosis did not develop during the LTBI treatment. Inthe group with TST-positive children aged <15 years with one and 2 BCG vaccine scars, the decrease between pre- and post-treatmentTST results showed a statistically significant difference.