Erschienen in:
01.03.2014 | Editorial
Effective Tuberculosis and Hepatitis Screening Prior to Anti-TNF-α Therapy: Are We There Yet?
verfasst von:
Neal Shahidi, Brian Bressler
Erschienen in:
Digestive Diseases and Sciences
|
Ausgabe 3/2014
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Excerpt
Anti-tumor necrosis factor-α (anti-TNF-α) drugs are widely used for the management of patients who suffer from Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Screening for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is mandatory prior to commencing therapy with anti-TNF-α drugs, due to an increased reactivation risk for these diseases. Unfortunately, in the case of LTBI, a consensus has not been reached, highlighted by the heterogeneity of current guidelines, regarding the use of the tuberculin skin test (TST) or an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) as parts of the initial screening strategy [
1,
2]. …