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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of study subjects

From: Testing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection using the QuantiFERON-TB GOLD assay in patients with comorbid conditions in a tertiary care endemic setting

 

Overall (n)

QFT positive (n)

QFT negative (n)

P value

Age

149

56

93

NS

Sex (female)

77

28

49

0.75

Sex (male)

72

28

44

0.75

Lymphopenia*

56

19

37

0.665

Autoimmune disease

7

0

7

< 0.001

Chronic kidney disease

7

2

5

0.613

Renal transplant

2

0

2

0.331

Malignancy

15

4

11

0.357

Chronic liver disease

2

0

2

0.331

COPD

1

0

1

0.439

Achlasia

1

1

0

0.439

Coronary heart disease

1

0

1

0.439

Diabetes

20

7

13

0.809

Other endocrine disorders

1

0

1

0.439

Epilepsy

2

1

1

0.744

Multiple co-morbids

18

6

12

0.096

No Known comorbids

72

35

37

0.007

  1. ‘*’ lymphopenia defined as lymphocytes <1500 cells/mm3; ‘QFT’, Quantiferon-Gold in Tube assay (Cellestis, Germany); Cut-off for QFT positive ≥ 0.35 IU/ml.’*’ lymphopenia is defined as lymphocytes <1500 cells/mm3; ‘#’ patients with multiple diseases including, diabetes, chronic liver disease, chronic kidney disease, endocrine disorders (panhypo-pitutiarism, hypothyroidism, thalassemia and malignancy); ‘**’ autoimmune disease includes Rheumatoid arthritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosis and mixed connective tissue disorders. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. QFT negative and QFT positive groups are compared using Chi-square test. P value ≤ 0.05 is considered to be significant between the two groups.