Treatment for Tuberculosis Infection With 3 Months of Isoniazid and Rifapentine in New York City Health Department Clinics.

Background: Completion of treatment for tuberculosis infection (TBI) with 9 months of self-administered daily isoniazid (9H) has historically been low (<50%) among New York City (NYC) Health Department tuberculosis clinic patients. Treatment of TBI with 3 months of once-weekly isoniazid and rifapentine (3HP) administered under directly observed therapy (DOT) might increase treatment acceptance and completion.

Methods: The study population included patients diagnosed with TBI at 2 NYC Health Department tuberculosis clinics from January 2013 through November 2013.

Use of an interferon-gamma release assay to diagnose latent tuberculosis infection in foreign-born patients.

Background: The tuberculin skin test (TST) has a low specificity in the setting of bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination. Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) appear to be more specific but have not been validated in this population under routine clinical conditions. We sought to validate the routine clinical use of the T-SPOT.

Use of therapeutic drug monitoring for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients.

Study Objectives: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the process of obtaining the serum concentration of a medication and modifying the dose based on the results. Little is known about the application of TDM in the treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) in clinical practice. This study characterized how TDM was applied in the management of MDR TB patients, and examined the clinical indications for ordering TDM, the process for obtaining drug concentrations, and the clinician response to the drug concentrations.