Flow cytometry-based method using diversity of cytokine production differentiates between Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and disease.

Authors present a pilot study of the development of innovative flow cytometry-based assay with a potential for use in tuberculosis diagnostics. Currently available tests do not provide robust discrimination between latent tuberculosis infection (TBI) and tuberculosis disease (TB). The desired application is to distinguish between the two conditions by evaluating the production of a combination of three cytokines: IL-2 (interleukin-2), IFNɣ (interferon gamma) and TNFɑ (tumor necrosis factor alpha) in CD4 and CD8 T cells.

TB index case tracing in the Roma community in the Czech Republic.

Tuberculosis (TB) contact tracing and TB preventive treatment are key tools in preventing the transmission of TB with the aim of eliminating the disease. Our study seeks to demonstrate how the infection spread from an individual patient to the entire community and how proactive contact tracing facilitated prompt diagnosis and treatment. Our work was conducted as a retrospective analysis of the spread of TB infection within the Roma community in the Czech Republic, following the case of an index patient who succumbed to pulmonary TB.

Trends in incidence of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in children in the Czech Republic in the past 35 years.

Objective: Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in children globally represents a proportion of all cases of tuberculosis, reaching 20% according to published reports. Children are at a higher risk for disseminated TB and extrapulmonary forms. The most prevalent clinical presentations of EPTB in children worldwide are peripheral lymphadenitis and osteoarticular TB.

Manifestations of cutaneous mycobacterial infections in patients with inborn errors of IL-12/IL-23-IFNγ immunity.

Background: Inborn errors of IL-12/IL-23-IFNγ immunity underlie Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases (MSMD), a group of immunodeficiencies characterized by a highly selective susceptibility to weakly virulent strains of mycobacteria, such as non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Cutaneous mycobacterial infections are common in MSMD and may represent a red flag for this immunodeficiency.

Objectives: We present a case series of four paediatric patients with MSMD, specifically with IFNγR1 and STAT1 deficiencies, and cutaneous NTM/BCG infections to increase awareness of this immunodeficiency, which may, in some cases, be intercepted by the dermatologist and thus timely referred to the immunologist.

The respiratory consequences of COVID-19 lasted for a median of 4 months in a cohort of children aged 2-18 years of age.

Aim: We focused on the clinical picture, severity and prognosis of children who experienced long-term respiratory issues after COVID-19.

Methods: This was a national Czech multicentre study of paediatric post-COVID syndrome, which used a standard protocol to evaluate structural and functional anomalies and exclude alternative diagnoses. From 6 January to 30 June 2021, 11 paediatric pulmonologists enrolled all paediatric referrals aged 2-18 years with persistent respiratory symptoms more than 12 weeks after COVID-19, namely cough, dyspnoea and chest pain.

Ten Years' Experience with the Discontinuation of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination in the Czech Republic.

Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination programs were introduced in Czechoslovakia more than 60 years ago under a quite different epidemiological situation than that of today. Compulsory mass BCG vaccination was abolished in November 2010 and changed to a selective vaccination program for infants at high risk of contracting tuberculosis (TB).

Methods: This work sets out to ascertain the risk of TB and nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection in the 10-year period following the change to the vaccination program and to compare this with the same period of time when mass BCG vaccination was compulsory.

Nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in children in the Czech Republic in the period 2003-2018.

Aim: Comparision of the incidence of cervical lymphadenitis caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria in two equal time periods before and after the ending of widespread calmetization (tuberculosis vaccination). Backgroung. From 2011 to 2018, 89 children were registered in the Tuberculosis Register with cervical lymphadenitis caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria, as confirmed by cultivation.